House sergeant-at-arms claims Jan 6. law enforcement response would have been different if rioters were black
Misty Severi
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The sergeant-at-arms for the House of Representatives claimed that the police response to the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill would have been “vastly different” if the rioters were black.
William Walker, who was the head of the D.C. National Guard during the insurrection, echoed observations from others in America that the law enforcement response to the riot would have been very different if the rioters were black.
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“I’m African American, child of the ’60s. I think it would have been a vastly different response if those were African Americans trying to breach the Capitol,” Walker told the Jan. 6 committee, according to an interview transcript released Tuesday.
“As a career law enforcement officer, part-time soldier, last five years full-time but a law enforcement officer my entire career, the law enforcement response would have been different,” he added.
The D.C. National Guard was not authorized to help U.S. Capitol Police during the insurrection until roughly three hours after the riot started, according to NBC News.
Walker compared the police response to the Capitol breach to the response to the summer riots over the death of George Floyd in 2020.
“I personally, William Joseph Walker, not Gen. Walker, thought that it was just vastly different,” Walker said. “National Guard is not called in December. National Guard is not called in November. And I watched on television the difference between people coming to the Capitol in November. And if you watch the film, and if these same groups came back in December, better prepare.”
Walker claimed that he could tell beforehand that the events of Jan. 6 would be a big deal and that the intelligence information was clear.
“I’m an intelligence officer. … To me, the intelligence was there that this was going to be a big deal,” Walker said. “I mean, everybody knew that people were directed to come there by the president. November was a run-up, December was practice, and January 6th was executed.”
The release of the transcript came shortly after the select committee issued its final report, in which it recommended criminal referrals against former President Donald Trump.
The referrals recommended charges of “conspiracy to make a false statement,” “conspiracy to defraud the United States,” “inciting or aiding an insurrection,” and “obstruction of an official proceeding” against Trump.
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The final report did not include much information on law enforcement and intelligence failures, but it did state that “federal and local law enforcement authorities were in possession of multiple streams of intelligence predicting violence directed at the Capitol prior to January 6th.”