Police who defended US Capitol during January 6 attack honoured – By The Associated Press (Al Jazeera) / Dec 6, 2022
US lawmakers praise officers who protected the Capitol against Trump supporters seeking to overturn the 2020 election.
Law enforcement officers who defended the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, were honoured on Tuesday with Congressional Gold Medals nearly two years after they fought supporters of then-President Donald Trump in a brutal and bloody attack.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the “heroes” as she opened the ceremony in the stately Capitol Rotunda, which was overrun in 2021 when Trump supporters roamed the halls trying to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election.
In bestowing Congress’s highest honour, Pelosi praised law enforcement for “courageously answering the call to defend our democracy in one of the nation’s darkest hours”.
To recognise the hundreds of officers who were at the Capitol on January 6, the medals will be placed in four locations — at United States Capitol Police headquarters, the Metropolitan Police Department, the Capitol and the Smithsonian Institution.
