The police officers were taunted and beaten. Some were knocked unconscious and dragged down stone steps, tear gas stinging their throats, to chants of “U.S.A! U.S.A!” on Jan. 6, 2021, as hundreds, then thousands, swarmed the citadel of American democracy.
Now, more than five years later — and years after Congress ordered a memorial honoring the officers be installed at the Capitol — workers placed the plaque inside the building they protected from a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters intent on overturning his 2020 election loss.
In the predawn darkness Saturday, around 4 a.m., staff with the Architect of the Capitol bolted the bronze plaque to a granite wall near an entrance on the west front, close to where the armed crowd had amassed and scaled scaffolding set up for the inauguration. They wheeled the plaque, stored in plywood, across the stone basement floor and guided it through the double doors. They raised the tribute with a jack table and began bolting it to the wall, the clang of their tools ringing out through otherwise empty hallways.
There was no announcement, no ceremony, no news cameras — just two employees on their routine overnight shift working while most of Washington slept. The quiet installation, which Congress ordered completed by mid-March 2023, marks the latest turn in the contested effort to remember Jan. 6, as Trump continues to reframe the riot as patriotic and the rioters as victims of a weaponized justice system.
Congress passed a law in March 2022 mandating the installation of a memorial plaque within a year. Instead, the plaque sat in the Capitol basement, surrounded by maintenance equipment. It lists the names of almost two dozen local, state and federal law enforcement agencies including the D.C. police, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Capitol Police, the National Guard and the Maryland and Virginia state police.
Democrats have pressed for implementation in the years since, saying the only thing keeping the plaque from public view was that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) had yet to instruct the Architect of the Capitol — which oversees the complex — to install it. A spokesperson for Johnson at the time argued the project was “not implementable.” Some lawmakers took it upon themselves to memorialize the law enforcement response, mounting copies of the plaque outside their office doors.
Last summer, two police officers who responded to the riot sued the Architect of the Capitol to have the congressional memorial installed and, according to federal court records, “to honor the women and men who saved the lives of those inside the building, and to ensure that the history of this attack on the Capitol — and on democracy — is not forgotten.”
In January, senators passed by unanimous consent a resolution ordering the display of the plaque on the Senate side of the Capitol building “until the plaque can be placed in its permanent location.” It was a seemingly rare moment of bipartisanship, helmed by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon).
Five people died during the attack or its immediate aftermath. Among them was Brian D. Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who suffered two strokes and died a day after he confronted rioters. He was 42 years old. More than 140 officers were injured. At least four officers later died by suicide.
Trump, however, has called Jan. 6 a “day of love.” For hours that afternoon, he made little effort to quell the assault he helped instigate. When he ultimately shared a video telling people to “go home,” he continued to spread the falsehood that he won the election by “a landslide.”
On the first day of his second term, he granted clemency to nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the attack, effectively wiping away a years-long effort by federal investigations to seek accountability. Earlier this year, on the fifth anniversary of the attack, his administration unveiled a website filled largely with falsehoods, including a claim that Capitol Police had “turned a peaceful demonstration into chaos.”
Architect of the Capitol staff were already back at work just hours after the riot ended, sweeping shattered glass and hauling away broken furniture. Their HVAC team offered their eyewash stations to officers struck by pepper spray and tear gas.
About half an hour in, the two employees lifted their screwdrivers and began to tighten. They used a level to check the installation was straight. Then they checked again and again.
“Don’t want this thing coming off,” one of the employees said, picking up his screwdriver and checking the bolts anew.
They stepped back and looked at the plaque, newly displayed. It reads: “On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy on January 6, 2021. Their heroism will never be forgotten.”
Two other colleagues watched. “Work like this typically takes place after hours, when visitors are not in the hallways,” said Todd Andrews, a senior spokesman for the Architect of the Capitol, when asked about the reason for an overnight assembly. A ceremony is probably forthcoming, he added.
On the wall near the plaque, they affixed a QR code titled “Honored Law Enforcement.” A scan with a smartphone takes the viewer to a list of officers present that day. The list goes on for 45 pages.
By 4:25 a.m. they had finished. They packed up their tools and wheeled the plywood away, leaving the hallway empty once more. Outside, the air was damp and filled with birdsong, the darkness gradually receding with the dawn of a new day.
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