Last week, a Colorado hearing to determine whether or not to disqualify former president Donald Trump from the ballot in the upcoming election was held. More than a dozen police officers from across the country offered testimony to recount their experiences of the violent insurrection on January 6 as part of the hearing.
The state’s secretary of state, Jovan Melton, chaired the preliminary hearing. It was attended by Trump’s attorney, Scott Will, who addressed false representations of the events at the Capitol. In response, Melton stated that “this hearing is about the facts” and called for the testimony of cops who had witnessed the incident first-hand.
Police officers from Akron, Ohio, Chicago, Illinois, and Atlanta, Georgia, described in vivid detail the chaos and violence that occurred on that day. A Pittsburgh police officer, describing the commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s headquarters, said the experience was “surreal” and that he had seen “total insanity” and “a mob mentality.”
Reporters from Colorado Independent wrote that towards the end of the hearing, Melton asked each officer to describe what they’d seen in one sentence. Their responses showed that they had been deeply affected by the events of January 6, offering somber comments such as “We saw a very dangerous and very chaotic situation,” “I saw violence … I saw a system that was overwhelmed,” and “We saw a sheer disregard for the law.”
The officers’ testimony was compelling, but may have been overshadowed by news about former president Trump’s primary victory in South Carolina. In any case, the Colorado hearing was part of a larger effort to hold Trump accountable for his role in the Capitol riot, and its conclusion is not yet known.
The accounts of the police officers may also add to the case for disqualifying Trump from any presidential ballot in the future. While Trump continues to claim that the election was rigged, the officers’ word and memories provide evidence of what really happened that fateful day.
Their stories could help unify Americans, showing that in the midst of the violence and terror of Jan. 6, there were people willing to stand up and defend the Capitol from the insurrectionists. In this way, the police officers’ testimonies can be seen as the ultimate expression of patriotism—devotion and commitment to the defense of the law and democracy.