Now that a long-delayed plaque honoring officers who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack has been given a temporary place on the Senate side, some say they aren’t giving up their fight for a permanent home. A resolution adopted in January and led by Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., directed the Architect of the Capitol to display the plaque in a “publicly accessible location in the Senate wing” until it can be “placed at a permanent location on the western front.” But former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who filed a lawsuit over the delay last June alongside Daniel Hodges, a current D.C. police officer, said the temporary location should not be the end of the story for the plaque. “The law says it needs to be placed on the west front of the Capitol, and we’re going to push for that until it is where everyone can see it, not just people that work in the building,” Dunn said. Dunn recently announced his second bid for Congress, after losing a Democratic primary in Maryland’s 3rd District in 2024. This time, he’s running for the seat vacated by retiring Rep. Steny H. Hoyer in Maryland’s 5th District, joining a crowded field of candidates. While he said he appreciates Tillis’s efforts, Dunn said he does not intend to drop the lawsuit. The plaque’s makeshift location is on a wall near doors that lead out to the Capitol’s West Front, past a sign that says “Authorized Personnel Only” — meaning tours of the Capitol won’t pass by it. Down a set of stairs past the crypt, the hallway is not a highly trafficked area, save for the few staff and police officers who may pass through. Tillis said the location means every future president will have to walk past it before they are sworn in — even if it’s not accessible to the public. “I like the idea of it being in a place where the next president, and the president, who hopefully is sitting there, watching the peaceful transition of power. That seems to be a fitting place for it to be,” he said. Dunn said he understands the symbolism. Hodges, for example, was crushed in the West Front doors, feet from where the plaque now hangs. “That location is where some of the most violent, brutal fighting took place,” Dunn said. Speaker Mike Johnson’s office has blamed the delay in hanging the plaque on logistical and technical challenges in how the 2022 law that authorized it was written. While the law says it should include “the names of all of the officers” who responded on Jan. 6, the finished version lists law enforcement agencies instead. Critics have dismissed that reasoning, saying the finished plaque could include a digital supplement to display individual names — which the temporary location now has in the form of a QR code hanging next to the plaque that links to 45 pages of names of law enforcement officials who responded to the attack that day. The reluctance has more to do with whitewashing the violence committed by supporters of President Donald Trump that day, many argue. The current placement is a stopgap until “the House decides to go through with the implementation,” Tillis said. Dunn said permanently displaying the plaque on the West Front isn’t optional — it’s the law. “This is a temporary home. It is still not in accordance with the law, so our lawsuit will continue,” Dunn said. While Tillis has said he is planning on having a ceremony for the plaque, Dunn said he won’t be in attendance. “I don’t plan to be part of any ceremony, especially by a Congress of people who did not want it hung in the first place,” he said. “It shouldn’t have taken this much effort, it shouldn’t have taken a lawsuit, it shouldn’t be three years later, where we have been fighting for it to be put up, and it’s still not in a proper position.”
