Black Capitol Police officers say they were called the N-word during the Capitol siege and some officers 'were catering to the rioters'

Ashley Collman

Jan 11, 2021, 18:22 IST

Black Capitol Police officers say they were called the N-word during the Capitol siege and some officers 'were catering to the rioters'

Trump supporters confront police and security forces at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty

Two Black officers with the US Capitol Police told BuzzFeed News that they were repeatedly called the N-word by Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.
One pointed to a "big difference" in how his colleagues dealt with the rioters, compared with last summer's Black Lives Matter protesters.
"Some of the officers were catering to the rioters," the officer said.
The Capitol Police has come under fire for its handling of Wednesday's attack. Some officers were seen allowing the mob to advance on the building and posing for selfies.

Two Black US Capitol Police officers told BuzzFeed News they were repeatedly called the N-word by supporters of President Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol last week and suggested that their fellow officers went easy on the rioters.

One of the officers who spoke with BuzzFeed News, a newer recruit, pointed to a "big difference" in how his fellow officers treated Wednesday's mob compared with the way they treated Black Lives Matter protesters last summer.

Much attention has been paid to a video showing officers appearing to open a barricade to the mob, and to the fact that initial arrests paled in comparison with the number of people arrested at protests against Trump and racial injustice.

"Some officers were catering to the rioters" on Wednesday, the officer said.

The younger officer said it was hurtful to see video of one of his white colleagues posing for selfies with some of the rioters.

"That one hurt me the most because I was on the other side of the Capitol getting my ass kicked," he said.

The officer said that if it had been Black people breaching the Capitol last week, he's not sure his white coworkers would have been as chummy with them.

"If you're going to treat a group of demonstrators for Black Lives Matters one way, then you should treat this group the same goddamn way," the officer said. "With this group you were being kind and nice and letting them walk back out. Some of them got arrested, but a lot of them didn't."

The second officer who spoke with BuzzFeed, who has been on the force for more than a decade, said that after he and others regained control of the Capitol later, he was overwhelmed with emotion.

"I sat down with one of my buddies, another Black guy, and tears just started streaming down my face," he said. "I said, 'What the f---, man? Is this America? What the f--- just happened? I'm so sick and tired of this shit.'"

He said he broke down in the rotunda on Wednesday night, after the building had been cleared, and yelled out: "These are racist-ass terrorists."

"I got called a n----- 15 times today," the officer recalled saying. "Trump did this and we got all of these f---ing people in our department that voted for him. How the f--- can you support him?"

"I cried for about 15 minutes and I just let it out," he said.