A US Capitol Police Officer who was beaten and subjected to racist threats during the Jan 6 riot hit out at the dozens of Pennsylvania State Police troopers who posed for a photograph with former President Donald Trump last weekend.
Mr Trump was in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania last Saturday for a rally to support favoured Republican candidates like Doug Mastriano. During his visit, he posed for a photograph with 31 uniformed troopers and five non-uniformed men in front of a Pennsylvania State Police banner for Troop P Wilkes-Barre.
Mr Trump then shared the photograph to his page on the social media platform Truth Social. The post got the attention of Pennsylvania Gov Tom Wolf, who appoints the police commissioners who oversee state troopers.
The governor’s press secretary Elizabeth Rementer told PennLive that “according to PSP, this was a private photo opportunity with the former president and it was not approved for use by the former president for public purposes.”
But for Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, the existence of the photograph was a betrayal from his fellow law enforcement officers.
“That’s unacceptable. It alienates a lot of people,” Mr Dunn toldHuffPost. “Taking a formal picture at a rally where he’s literally attacking the FBI and the DOJ, your brothers and sisters in law enforcement, by the way … that’s a slap in the face.”
Mr Trump, who stands accused of instigating the Jan 6 riot and a broader coup attempt against the US government, is under multiple investigations for improper conduct ranging from his attempts to overturn the results of the 200 presidential election to his handling of classified documents.
At the rally in Pennsylvania, Mr Trump attacked the Department of Justice and the FBI for their investigations of him. Days earlier, he again voiced his support for the people who attacked the Capitol last year — saying he would likely pardon them if he was still president.
It was against that backdrop that a number of Pennsylvania State Police officers in Wilks-Barre decided to show Mr Trump their support.
“Professionally? It’s unprofessional,” Mr Dunn said of the photograph. “It’s improper. Personally? Those two or three dozen Pennsylvania state troopers, from the bottom of my heart, can go f*** all the way off.”
The US’s largest police union endorsed Mr Trump for president in 2020, though police departments typically have policies against their officers making political endorsements.
