Five people died as a result of the riots at the Capitol and more than 140 police officers were injured defending the building. Nearly 600 people have been charged over the riots and more than 1,250 have been convicted.
Trump said last month that within minutes or hours of taking office, he would pardon those convicted of participating in the riot. He did not specify how many people he would forgive, but said Time magazine that “the vast majority of them should not be in jail.”
Jacob Chansley (right) shouts as a fellow rioter confronts Capitol Police in Washington DC on January 6, 2021.Credit: Getty Photos, digitally tinted
For many who live and work on Capitol Hill, the neighborhood surrounding the Capitol, the attack was personal and felt for months. The streets were closed. Helicopters were flying over the area. Local parks were patrolled by troops.
On a recent January morning, the neighborhood sidewalks were dotted with joggers, parents pushing strollers and people heading to work.
Some pedestrians refused to comment on the events of January 6 or give their names. Some said they feared irritating their employers or attracting unwanted attention online. Others ignored the questions out of basic exasperation at the state of the political climate.
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A block from the Capitol, Christine Clapp walked her dog, Piper, home after meeting her husband for coffee. The longtime Capitol Hill resident remembers the fear that gripped her neighborhood on Jan. 6 and the days that followed. And she is frustrated that there are leaders and others who have chosen to downplay the day’s events.
“The fact that some see it as a benign situation is a real insult to the members, the staff, the police, the surrounding community, DC and the nation,” he said.
Clapp isn’t worried about unrest this year. “I think the fact that Trump is coming back makes this anniversary a little more difficult, but after seeing that the reaction to his election was peaceful, I don’t fear that there will be people who will come here with pitchforks when the transfer of power happens.” . she said.
Over the front door of a neighborhood street hung a banner displaying an American flag in black capital letters: “RESIST TRUMP.”
Washington native Vernon “Skip” Strobel II had the sign made for his brick house after Trump first took office in 2017.
“I guess we can take that sign down now,” he remembers his roommate saying after Biden won the 2020 election.
“No, we can’t,” Strobel, 73, responded. “This man is not going to disappear.”
Now, as the anniversary of the insurrection and Trump’s second inauguration approaches, Strobel says the banner will remain. He was glued to his television that day in 2021, as the mob broke into the Capitol, just over a mile from his home.
That same afternoon, he ventured down to see the view with his own eyes. He finds that the Capitol lawn feels like an extension of his backyard, a treasured place to read a book. That day it was in ruins. Remember the screams, the flags, the broken glass and the barriers.
Then-President Donald Trump speaks at a January 6, 2021 rally to protest the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.Credit: AP
A retired federal employee and son of a D.C. firefighter, he choked back tears as he recounted the scene.
“It’s my hometown that people were vandalizing and defacing,” he said. “It just so happens that it is also the capital of the country.”
The January 6 anniversary is always difficult for Craig Sicknick, the older brother of Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who died on January 7, 2021, after fighting Capitol insurgents the day before.
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This year the day will be hard for two reasons.
“One is, well, my brother is not coming back,” Sicknick said in an interview from his home in Spotswood, New Jersey. Second, he says the country itself is “possibly irreparably damaged” by electing Trump a second time.
Sicknick is outraged that Trump said he would pardon those convicted of crimes on January 6, potentially including the two men who attacked his brother. One was sentenced to seven years in prison and the other to five months for attacking Brian Sicknick and other officers with chemical spray.
“It is unforgivable. “These people broke the law,” Sicknick said. “You’re basically saying the justice system is meaningless.”
For Sicknick, there is no doubt that Trump encouraged his supporters to go to the Capitol and did nothing to stop their assault until long after much of the damage was done.
Insurrectionists loyal to Donald Trump violently attack the US Capitol in an effort to overturn the results of the January 6, 2021 election.Credit: AP
Washington Post reported in 2022 that during the attack, Trump watched television, criticized Pence and made calls to pressure lawmakers to overturn the election while his supporters ransacked the Capitol. That same afternoon, he recorded a video urging his followers to return home.
“We had an election that was stolen from us. “It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side,” Trump said in the video recorded from the White House. “But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. “We have to have law and order.”
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Sicknick says Trump’s actions that day qualify as leading an insurrection and, therefore, his return to the White House is unconstitutional. On Saturday afternoon, he traveled to the district to share that message at a rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
But on Monday he plans to withdraw, temporarily, from his battle over Trump’s fitness for office and instead find time for himself.
“I think I’m going to turn off all news sources,” he said, “take the day off and maybe go for a long walk in the woods.”
Washington Post
