This #Jan6 plaque was made to honor law enforcement.

#House Speaker #MikeJohnson, a Louisiana #Republican [& #Trump lackey], has yet to formally unveil the plaque. And the Trump admin’s #DOJ is seeking to #dismiss a #police officers’ lawsuit asking that it be displayed as intended. The #Architect of the #Capitol, which was responsible for obtaining & displaying the plaque, said in light of the federal litigation, it cannot comment.

#Jan6 #NeverForget #insurrection #PoliticalViolence #AntiAmerican #democracy #law #PeacefulTransitionOfPower

Determined to preserve the nation’s #history, some 100 members of #Congress, mostly #Democrats, have taken it upon themselves to memorialize the moment. For months, they’ve mounted poster board-style replicas of the #Jan6 plaque outside their office doors, resulting in a #Capitol complex awash with makeshift remembrances.

#NeverForget #insurrection #PoliticalViolence #Trump #coup #AntiAmerican #democracy #law #Constitution #PeacefulTransitionOfPower

“On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected & defended this symbol of #democracy on #Jan6, 2021,” reads the faux bronze stand-in for the real thing. “Their heroism will never be forgotten.”

#NeverForget #insurrection #PoliticalViolence #Trump #coup #AntiAmerican #democracy #law #Constitution #PeacefulTransitionOfPower

In Washington, a capital city lined with monuments to the nation’s #history, the plaque was intended to become a simple but permanent marker, situated near the Capitol’s west front, where some of the most #violent fighting took place as #insurgents breached the building.

But in its absence, the missing plaque makes way for something else entirely — a culture of forgetting.

#Jan6 #NeverForget #insurrection #PoliticalViolence #Trump #coup #democracy #law #Constitution #PeacefulTransitionOfPower

Visitors can pass through the #Capitol without any formal reminder of what happened that day, when a mob of #Trump supporters stormed the building trying to overturn the Republican’s 2020 reelection defeat to Democrat #JoeBiden. With memory left unchecked, it allows new narratives to swirl & revised histories to take hold.

#Jan6 #NeverForget #history #insurrection #PoliticalViolence #coup #AntiAmerican #democracy #law #Constitution #PeacefulTransitionOfPower

5 years ago, the jarring scene watched the world over was declared an “#insurrection” by the then-GOP leader of the #Senate, while the #House #GOP leader at the time called it his “saddest day” in #Congress. But those condemnations have faded.

#Trump calls it a “day of love.” And #MikeJohnson, who was among those lawmakers challenging the 2020 election results, is now House speaker.

#Jan6 #NeverForget #history #PoliticalViolence #coup #democracy #law #Constitution #PeacefulTransitionOfPower

…At least 5 people died in the riot & its aftermath, including #Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by police while trying to climb through a window toward the House chamber. >140 law enforcement officers were wounded, some gravely, & several died later, some by suicide.

All told, ~1,500 people were charged in the #Capitol attack, among the largest federal prosecutions in the nation’s #history. When Trump returned to power, he pardoned all of them within hours of taking office.

Unlike the twin light beams that commemorated the #Sept11, 2001, attack or the stand-alone chairs at the #OklahomaCityBombing site #memorial, the failure to recognize #Jan6 has left a gap not only in #memory but in helping to stitch the country back together.

“That’s why you put up a plaque,” said Rep Mary Gay Scanlon, D-PA. “You respect the memory & the service of the people involved.”

#NeverForget #history #insurrection #PoliticalViolence #Trump #democracy #law #PeacefulTransitionOfPower