Posted on December 28, 2022

House Sergeant-At-Arms to Jan. 6 Panel: Response ‘Would Have Been Different’ if Rioters Were Black

Zach Schonfeld, The Hill, December 28, 2022

House Sergeant-at-Arms William Walker, who led the D.C. National Guard during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, said law enforcement would have responded differently if the rioters had been Black.

“I’m African American. Child of the Sixties. I think it would have been a vastly different response if those were African Americans trying to breach the Capitol,” Walker told the House Jan. 6 panel in April, according to a transcript released this week.

{snip}

{snip} “You know, as a law enforcement officer, there were — I saw enough to where I would have probably been using deadly force.”

{snip}

“You’re looking at somebody who would get stopped by the police for driving a high-value government vehicle. No other reason,” Walker told the committee.

“I think it would have been a different response,” he added. “I’ve had to talk with my five children, and getting ready to have it with my granddaughter, the talk. I don’t know if you know what I mean by the talk, of what to do to survive an encounter with the police.”