By Justin Papp, CQ-Roll Call (TNS)
WASHINGTON — Winston Pingeon is not out for awards or accolades, he said. He does not care about personal recognition.
But like others who defended the Capitol that day, he does want some acknowledgment of what transpired on Jan. 6, 2021. In the lead-up to the fourth anniversary of the mob attack, some are again calling for the dedication of an overdue plaque to honor police, though they aren’t holding their breath.
“At this point, I have no hope that it will be put up anytime soon. I feel like the GOP has forgotten and failed the Capitol Police,” Pingeon said. The former Capitol Police officer recalls being beaten and pepper-sprayed as a crowd stormed the building, trying to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s win.
He sees the plaque as important. “Not for me, but for the department. So that people know that what happened was wrong and we can’t just forget it. We can’t just pretend that it didn’t happen. Because it did.”
The delay has come as House Republicans continue to question prevailing narratives around Jan. 6 and shift blame away from Donald Trump, who claimed without evidence that the 2020 election was stolen.
Congress is required to put up a plaque honoring officers who protected the Capitol that day, thanks to a provision in the fiscal 2022 spending law. The plaque was to be placed “at a permanent location” on the West Front, where the fighting was particularly intense, by March 2023 at the latest, according to the law.
Democrats last year, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, suggested the plaque was complete and awaited approval from House Republican leadership. Months later, there is still no public timeline. Speaker Mike Johnson did not respond to a request for comment.
Now, Republicans are assuming control of both chambers in the coming Congress, and Trump is regaining the presidency. In the eyes of former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, a plaque would offer a needed reminder during the usual pomp and circumstance of the inaugural ceremony held on the West Front.
“It was my hope that the next president and future presidents would see those names before they step out and get sworn in, so they would understand that their words, their actions, their influence, could lead to violence and to never again repeat what happened on Jan. 6, 2021,” Gonell said.
‘People are talking about it’
For these former officers, frustration over the stalled plaque comes hand-in-hand with broader disappointment over attempts to whitewash the events of Jan. 6 and to absolve Trump.
House Republicans spent some of the 118th Congress poking holes in the findings of the Democrat-led select committee that previously investigated the attack. The Department of Justice wound down its Jan. 6-related criminal case against Trump after his reelection. And Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of pardoning Capitol rioters.
“I have this fear that it’ll never be put up and people will be pardoned or their sentences will be commuted, that’s my fear. A double whammy,” said Illinois Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley, who has followed the issue as part of his work on the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee.
Lawmakers have mostly been quiet about the plaque meant to honor officers, at least in public, and even those who support the effort are hazy on next steps.
“People are talking about it,” Quigley said in November of discussions behind the scenes. “I believe most people know what their sacrifice meant and know that we owe them our extraordinary gratitude and appreciation. I feel like I owe them an apology on behalf of our country that this hasn’t happened.”
At a budget hearing in April, Quigley and the top Democrat on the Legislative Branch subpanel, Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York, asked then-acting Architect of the Capitol Joseph DiPietro for updates. DiPietro said at the time that his office was ready to put the plaque up, but had not been directed. “The AOC continues to stand ready to put up the plaque once directed,” a spokesperson for the AOC said via email in late December.
“I’m going to continue to make the call that we need to have this plaque up sooner than later,” Espaillat said in an interview recently. “If we are truly about law and order and our police officers, we ought to recognize those who have put their lives on the line.”
In a rare mention from the minority leader, Jeffries brought up the plaque at a press conference in May, during National Police Week. He presented a poster replica of the plaque and blamed House Republican leadership for the delay. A version of that replica is on display in the Capitol Visitor Center, though it does not include individual names of officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 and is not placed on the West Front, as the 2022 spending law mandated.
“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,” the replica plaque reads. Beneath the inscription is a list of law enforcement agencies involved in protecting the Capitol that day.
That same month, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who was chair of the House Administration Committee until 2023 and who served on the Jan. 6 select committee, sent a letter to Johnson asking for an update. She said in December that she never received a response.
“The law requires the plaque to be posted, so there’s an expectation that the majority would follow the law,” Lofgren said. “But the reason why it was made the law was that hundreds of officers risked their lives to protect ours.”
‘Not giving up’
It’s not uncommon for Congress to miss deadlines it sets for itself. Other than public outcry or finger-pointing, there are virtually no consequences.
Former officers are under no illusions, though several expressed anger at Republicans who purported to “Back the Blue,” and then changed their tunes to more closely ally themselves with Trump.
“All these politicians rushing to my side to get a selfie with me so they can post it to Twitter about how they support democracy and love guys like Mike Fanone, they’re f—ing’ gone. They’ve been long, long, long gone,” said Michael Fanone, a former Metropolitan Police Department officer who, like Gonell, was severely injured in the attack.
Fanone, for his part, said he does not care about the plaque, but is generally frustrated with the politicking around Jan. 6.
Harry Dunn, a former Capitol Police officer turned political candidate (he lost a Democratic primary earlier this year in Maryland’s 3rd District), said outside pressure has proved fruitless so far. He pointed to an informal campaign — organized by a parody account on X and Bluesky with the handle @TheJan6Plaque — to call the speaker’s office and demand action.
“What can be done?” Dunn said. “You can’t get a straight answer out of Mike Johnson.”
Meanwhile, Gus Papathanasiou, who leads the Capitol Police union, said he hasn’t heard any complaints from current officers about the plaque. More concerning to him, he said, is a lack of accountability and lingering questions, like why rank-and-file officers were not given adequate equipment and intelligence to prepare for Jan. 6.
“It’s becoming more evident the failures of J6 four years ago were swept under the rug to push a political narrative. There’s lots of questions that have yet to be answered, and our officers deserve that,” he said in a late December text message.
For his part, Papathanasiou praised House Republicans’ recent efforts to reinvestigate the attack, a push led by Georgia Rep. Barry Loudermilk. As chair of the House Administration Oversight subpanel, Loudermilk has worked to cast doubt on the select committee led by Democrats, which held primetime hearings in 2022 and concluded that Trump was responsible for inciting an insurrection.
Asked about the plaque, Loudermilk said he wasn’t sure of its status but would “absolutely” support its placement.
“I’ve seen the videos. There was terrible violence,” Loudermilk said. “There were officers who acted heroically … they stood the line. They should be honored for it.”
But Democrats invested in the issue said the clearest path they see to dedicating the plaque is to win back the majority in 2026.
“I think it’s just part of the denialism that Republicans have made a central part of their being … to deny Jan. 6 and deny the harm it caused to the country, to the U.S. Capitol Police,” said House Administration ranking member Joseph D. Morelle, D-N.Y. “I guarantee you, when we’re in the majority, that plaque will be in a prominent place in the Capitol.”
Asked if the plaque’s placement would depend on Democrats retaking the House, Quigley said: “That’s my sense. But I’m not giving up.”
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