On Jan. 6, 2021, approximately 10,000 people attempted to stop the peaceful transfer of power, urged on by President Trump.
They violently assaulted the U.S. Capitol and some of them violently assaulted more than 140 police officers guarding the Capitol with a variety of weapons.
I know all this to be true because I was one of those officers.
Crushed, beaten, and with an eye gouged, my colleagues and I held the line against overwhelming numbers of rioters long enough for Congress and the vice president to get to safety, and later that night the 2020 presidential election was certified.
A Capitol Police officer injured during the riot suffered a stroke the following day and died. Four other officers who defended the Capitol that day committed suicide within months.
For a brief, shining moment, Congress was unified in its fear of what election lies had wrought and their gratitude toward their guardians. It didn’t last long, of course.
But in the dying embers of afterglow, they passed a law requiring that a plaque be made and installed on the west front of the Capitol, honoring the men and women who defended democracy that day.
The plaque was made, but it now sits in the basement of the Capitol, hidden from the public. The people responsible for its installation all pass the buck as to why the law is not being followed and the plaque remains hidden away.
I am suing the Architect of the Capitol to force the law to be followed and a plaque installed as the law prescribes.
Let me first tell you what has no bearing on this suit: I am not doing this out of some desire for self-aggrandizement. I have received more than my fair share of praise, and by nature I am not a public person. I am not running for office. I don’t have a book or an album or a podcast to promote, and this in no way helps my career.
I am not getting paid to do this. This lawsuit and promotion of the cause is on my own time and my own dime.
I am not doing this as some favor for politicians who have shown me kindness; I am always grateful for their support, but they had no hand in this legal action. And this is about something more important.
The reasons I am doing this should be obvious to anyone with clear eyes and a functioning moral compass. I am suing to have a plaque installed because my colleagues deserve it.
Those of us who lost their health, their jobs, their peace of mind and their lives deserve to be remembered for their sacrifice.
I am doing this because those who find that day’s insurrection inconvenient to their power are attempting to rewrite history, claiming that the people who attacked our Capitol are patriots, that their cause was just and their actions reasonable.
Unlike these deceivers, many of whom were cowering in the Capitol while my colleagues took the beating meant for them, I have no qualms speaking the truth about that day. I saw the hatred in their hearts and felt the violence in their minds.
Daniel Hodges is a Metropolitan Police Officer and a party to a new lawsuit against the Architect of the Capitol to compel the installation of the congressionally mandated January 6 memorial.
