Why I Sued to Have a Jan. 6 Memorial Installed in Congress

This is about more than a plaque, it’s about our national memory.

One year into the second Trump term has demonstrated our worst fears realized: America is now engaged in a rapid-fire litany of atrocities across the globe.

And so while the United States is creating puppet states in South America, threatening military invasion against our allies in Europe, and killing citizens in the street at home, it may seem small-minded to fight for the installation of a humble memorial honoring the law enforcement officers, like myself, who defended the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. However, true history remembered through the unclouded lens of the unafraid witness is the last bastion of strength against those who seek to rewrite what America meant and what it will mean.

In 2022, the United States Congress passed a law that mandated the creation and installation of a plaque to honor the men and women of law enforcement who fought to defend the Capitol and country on January 6th, 2021. The plaque was to be installed on the western front of the building by March of 2023, however this deadline has long come and gone with the plaque in question still being hidden from public view.

While political revisionist history regarding the insurrection began not long after its conclusion, by the time of this legislation it had not yet become the mandatory loyalty test to the party that it is today. And so while I had received more than my fair share of attention for my role in the defense of the Capitol, I greeted the news of the plaque as a worthwhile memorial to my unsung colleagues, too many of whom had sacrificed their physical and mental health, their jobs, and in some cases their lives.

In February of 2021 I was honored to attend the Congressional Tribute and Lying in Honor at the Capitol for United States Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was injured on the 6th and died the following day. I remember saluting his remains before I left the Rotunda, thinking, “There but for the grace of God go I.” And my thoughts were with the other officers who I fought alongside and tragically lost their lives within months of the attack. With news of the plaque being commissioned, I was glad that these men would have something to speak to their sacrifice at the site of their deeds.

Unfortunately, it seems the powers that be in Congress do not share my respect for those who fought for the republic. Years after the deadline has come and gone with the plaque MIA and the Architect of the Capitol (the person responsible for its implementation) recalcitrant as to its installation, I decided to offer some encouragement. Alongside former USCP Officer Harry Dunn, we filed a lawsuit against the Architect in an effort to force compliance with the law. The Architect has claimed that we, Officers who fought the mob on January 6th and who the plaque is specifically honoring, do not have standing to take this legal action.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, Sens. Thom Tillis and Jeff Merkley passed a bi-partisan resolution with unanimous consent to display the plaque in their domain. Per the Senate Resolution, the plaque will be displayed on their side of the building and the measure does not require approval in the House.

Several weeks have already passed as of this publication, and the plaque is still not installed. I’ve been told that “technicalities” are still being addressed by—you guessed it!—the Architect of the Capitol, as well Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the Rules Committee. Since the Architect has not installed the plaque in violation of the law, I don’t see why he would change just because the entire United States Senate wants something done, and so I await further progress in my lawsuit.

All this effort to block the display of a small memorial belies the real threat I’m rallying against and an unintended purpose of the plaque: to preserve the history of what transpired that day.

On January 6th of this year, five years after his insurrection came to a head, Trump’s White House published a website that presents an utterly fantastical retelling of events, chock full of lies, victim-blaming, and even getting simple facts about the day wrong. It refers to the mob that brought guns, knives, bombs as “peaceful protesters,” despite the incredible violence wrought against the police: breaking bones, drawing blood, and shocking into cardiac arrest while urging their fellows to “kill [that officer] with his own gun.”

The site claims that we, the law enforcement deployed to protect the Capitol, Congress, and the Vice President, actually instigated the violence against people who traveled across the country with the sole purpose of participating in the attack. It claims Ashli Babbit was unarmed (she wasn’t), that Mike Pence could have prevented the certification (he couldn’t), and that the election was stolen (it wasn’t). The site delivers a cavalcade of lies about the January 6th Subcommittee, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, federal law enforcement, prosecutors, the insurrectionists, and Trump himself as if it were the gospel truth. And as maddening as it is, it also gives me hope.

Hope because, years after the day in question, after the ringleaders have dodged legal accountability, after the foot soldiers have been pardoned, after Trump himself is back in office with control of all three branches of government, he still feels it necessary to try to rewrite history. He does this because the truth of his deeds dogs him and his normal methods of dealing with adversity have no effect; it cannot be bought, intimidated, coerced, or killed.

This is one reason I continue to fight for the humble plaque to be installed in its rightful place, even amidst all the fresh horror this administration is perpetrating. How we remember the past informs who we believe we were, who we conceive ourselves to be, and our trajectory for what is to come. Every avenue to preserve the truth has inherent value, and every vector for communicating the truth must be defended. Cede nothing to the enemies of truth and justice, as you can be sure they will grant you no such kindness in their quest for dominion over the past, present, and future

High-concept motivations addressed, I return to the simple, original intent of the plaque; to honor the valor and sacrifice of my colleagues. Dozens of officers with the Metropolitan Police Department left the service due to the events of January 6th and I can only imagine the number departed from the United States Capitol Police. There are those who still do police work who carry the memories of the day, and tragically those whose memories are all we have left of them.

I believe that we will get the plaque installed where it belongs, where people visiting our Capitol from all over the world can reflect on the bravery my colleagues showed in the face of incredible odds. Until such time as they and those we’ve lost are given due respect, I take solace in the words of Pericles, who reminds us that all of civilization is a memorial to those who fought for our ability to live unfettered by the evils they defeated.

For Brian Sicknick, Howard Liebengood, Jeffrey Smith, Gunther Hashida, and Kyle DeFreytag: “The whole earth is the tomb of heroic men and their story is not given only on stone over their clay but abides everywhere, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men’s lives.”

Daniel Hodges is a Metropolitan Police Officer in Washington DC. He is speaking in this essay in his personal capacity.