A full-page message of Police Officer Appreciation was featured in the Jan. 27 issue of The Advertiser. The intended encouragement of our law enforcement community seems a bit hollow after President Donald Trump’s mass pardons Jan. 20 for roughly 1,500 rioters and the commutation of the sentences of 14 of his supporters in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The Advertiser proclaimed “Blue Lives Matter.” Those brave officers who defended the Capitol, America’s democracy and its democratic processes should get the same support.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, “Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted on Jan. 6 …” and “It was likely the largest single day of mass assault of law enforcement officers in our nation’s history.”

Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, assaulted with pepper spray during the riot, later that day collapsed and was taken to a hospital. He died on Jan. 7, 2021. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Washington, D.C. determined that Sicknick suffered two strokes and died of natural causes, noting “all that transpired played a role in his condition.” Two police officers who defended the Capitol died by suicide in the days immediately after the attack. Their deaths were classified as “in the line of duty.”

Court records indicate that, at a minimum, about 20 participants in the attack were armed with firearms. Jan. 6 defendants were armed with firearms, stun guns, flagpoles, fire extinguishers, bike racks, batons, a metal whip, office furniture, pepper spray, bear spray, a tomahawk ax, a hatchet, a hockey stick, knuckle gloves, a baseball bat, a massive “Trump” billboard, “Trump” flags, a pitchfork, pieces of lumber, crutches and even an explosive device. USA Today reported on June 28, 2022, that Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Trump said to take metal detectors away, adding, “They’re not here to hurt me.” The people who got hurt were the police and the perpetrators were pardoned.

Among the pardoned were Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys leader sentenced to 22 years after being convicted of seditious conspiracy. As reported by National Public Radio in “Morning Edition” on Jan. 30, among those pardoned are persons with criminal histories that include drug dealing, child abuse, child solicitation, criminal sexual assault of a child, forcible rape of a 7-year-old child, manslaughter and production of child pornography. Matthew Huttle, killed by police in Indiana in a traffic stop, had been sentenced for physical abuse of his child. He was another one of Trump’s “patriots,” as he called them.

So the Advertiser is to be commended for supporting our police. It’s too bad Trump and those who support the mass pardons of the Jan. 6 terrorists don’t.