Summary
Police officers who defended the Capitol during the January 6, 2021 riot condemned Donald Trump’s mass pardon of those involved, calling it a “miserable miscarriage of justice.”
Trump granted clemency to over 1,500 individuals, including those who assaulted law enforcement.
Former officers Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell criticized the pardons, highlighting lasting physical and emotional scars from the attack.
Both officers, now advocates against political violence, emphasized the erasure of accountability and warned of the dangers of Trump’s actions normalizing future violence.
American police do not exist to protect the populace, and this isn’t just some philosophical “they act unethically a lot” thing, this is established by the Supreme Court that police have no duty to protect and serve despite it being emblazoned on everything. American police are at their core publicly funded private security for the assets of the wealthy and act as tools of harassment against anyone who would defy the wealthy.
Anyone who becomes a cop in the US is a class traitor. They become part of an apparatus of harm against the common person, every time a cop does something illegal, or every time the buddies look the other way, or lie about events on reports, it all contributes to a system of harm.
How to handle class traitors who’ve also been hurt by the system they uphold… I don’t know… I 100% get not wanting to trust someone who participated in and furthered the harms done by cops, but, in being ideologically consistent, I also get that all people in the ideal society I’d like to see are given the opportunity to make amends and restore their position in society.