RECKONING

250 Black Cops Have Sued Capitol Police for Racism, Harassment: Report

“We got Jan. 6 because no one took us seriously,” Sharon Blackmon-Malloy, vice president of the U.S. Capitol Black Police Association told ProPublica.

More than 250 Black police officers have sued the Capitol Police for racism in the past two decades, ProPublica reports, offering a damning assessment of the agency that failed to stop thousands of violent Trump supporters from storming the Capitol last week. “We got Jan. 6 because no one took us seriously,” Sharon Blackmon-Malloy, vice president of the U.S. Capitol Black Police Association told ProPublica. Former Black cops alleged white colleagues called them the N-word. One found a noose on his locker and another recalled a colleague saying, “Obama monkey, go back to Africa.” White officers who were friendly with Black colleagues were called “huk lovers” or “FOGs” for “friends of gangsters.” At one point a policy existed that required officers to stop and question any Black person who stepped foot on Capitol grounds.

Two Capitol Police officers who were at the Capitol on Jan. 6 told Buzzfeed News that they wouldn’t be surprised if lawmakers had been involved in the attack.