PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — State legislators from Philadelphia on Monday commemorated law enforcement officers who were injured or who died on Jan. 6, 2021, while defending the U.S. Capitol against a violent mob of Donald Trump supporters intent on stopping Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election.
"We can never forget what happened four years ago on this very day," said Sen. Vincent Hughes.
He said he wants to make sure the history of the Jan. 6 insurrection is not rewritten.
"It was not a walk in the park. It was not a peaceful gathering. It was an attempt to overthrow the government of the United States," he said.
Hughes and his colleagues have been holding such memorials on the date for the last three years, but the event took on new meaning with Congress once again meeting to certify election results—this time, for the man accused of instigating the insurrection and who promises to pardon the insurrectionists who have been convicted and sentenced in federal court.
Sen. Art Haywood read from a timeline in the congressional report on the incident, including an account of an attack on Michael Fanone, an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia.
"... dragged down the steps, beaten with pipes, stunned with a taser and sprayed with chemicals ... "
Fanone, now retired from the force, was almost killed that day.
Haywood said the annual commemoration is intended strictly to recognize the heroism of the officers who defended the Capitol that day.
Congress' certification of 2024 election results happened on Monday without disruption.