Plaque Honoring Police Who Defended Capitol on Jan. 6 Installed After Delay

A plaque honoring the law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was installed Saturday near the building’s West Front, according to CBS News and NBC News. The plaque went up more than three years after a 2022 law required it, and it was placed on the Senate side of the hallway, CBS News reported, because the Senate voted unanimously in January to install it after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had delayed the project.

The plaque 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.” Below that text, NBC News reported, it lists the law enforcement agencies and other entities that responded, with the U.S. Capitol Police and Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department listed above and apart from the rest. CBS News, citing The Associated Press, said The Washington Post first reported the installation, which a reporter witnessed at about 4 a.m. EST, when two employees were working a night shift to bolt it to the wall; NBC News said staff of the Architect of the Capitol put it up.

Congress passed the law setting out the plaque’s requirements in 2022 and gave a one-year deadline that was missed, according to CBS News and NBC News. Johnson’s office said on Jan. 5, the night before the fifth anniversary of the attack, that the statute was “not implementable,” and CBS News said it also called the proposed alternatives noncompliant. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., led the effort to install the plaque and, with Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced the Senate resolution, which passed without objection, the outlets reported. Merkley said at the time it would stay in the Senate until both chambers could agree on a permanent location, NBC News reported.

According to CBS News, which NBC News did not independently report, the attack injured more than 150 officers, and five police officers who served at the Capitol died in the days and weeks afterward. CBS News said President Donald Trump has called Jan. 6 a “day of love”; NBC News reported he pardoned roughly 1,500 defendants charged over the attack shortly after taking office.

Two officers, Daniel Hodges of the Metropolitan Police Department and former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, sued over the delay, and the lawsuit continues, both outlets reported. Hodges called the overnight installation a “fine stopgap” but said it does not fully comply with the law, CBS News reported. The statute said the plaque should be placed “on” the West Front, not near it, and that the officers’ names should appear on it; instead, a nearby sign carries a QR code linking to a 45-page document listing thousands of names, according to CBS News. “The weight of a judicial ruling would help secure the memorial against future tampering,” Hodges said.

The Justice Department has sought to dismiss the suit. CBS News reported that U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and others argued Congress “already has publicly recognized the service of law enforcement personnel” by approving the plaque, and that displaying it would not ease the problems the officers describe. Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York, the top Democrat on the House spending subcommittee that oversees the legislative branch, said he would keep pressing Johnson on the issue, according to CBS News.