Black officer on Capitol rioters: ‘They hated us and they hated our skin color’

A Black Capitol police officer in a Wednesday interview recalled the racism he and other Black officers say they faced during the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, stating that the rioters “showed that they hated us and they hated our skin color.”

Officer Harry Dunn, who has served on the Capitol police force for 13 years, detailed to CNN host Don Lemon his experience as he tried to protect the Capitol and lawmakers when a mob of former President Trump’s supporters breached security that day. 

Dunn said that he and other officers were called racial slurs during the attack. 

“The Black officer struggle was different,” Dunn told Lemon. “We fought against not just people that were, that hated what we represented, but they hate our skin color also. That’s just a fact and they used those words to prove that, they showed that they hated us and they hated our skin color.”

During a previous interview, Dunn said that he was called a racial slur during the riots, and that his fellow officers were beaten with Blue Lives Matter flags. He shared on Wednesday that as the months have gone on, he has had time to discuss the injustices with other Black officers who faced similar treatment.

“And you know why I guess this is a little harder for me now, because at the time I did my first interview, I didn’t know the pain that a lot of my other colleagues had suffered. They shared them with me,” he said.

“[H]ere we are giving so much and putting our lives on the line to protect democracy and keep it and we’re being called racial slurs, traitors, and any just weapon that these people could use because they were upset about something,” he said.

Last week Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said that he did not feel unsafe during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, but might have if Black Lives Matter protesters or antifa activists had breached security.

Dunn told Lemon that he could not comment on the senator’s remarks, but did maintain that he and other officers faced harm.

“The terrorists there on the 6th, they were there to cause harm and they came prepared for a fight,” Dunn said.

The FBI on Thursday released new video of the attack on the Capitol and called on the public to help identify rioters who attacked police.