“Never in my wildest dreams did I think that, as a police officer … I would find myself in the middle of a battle,” Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards said Thursday at the first public hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. “I’m trained to detain a couple of subjects … but I’m not combat-trained. And that day, it was just hours of hand-to-hand combat.”
The hearings continue this week, but Edwards’ testimony still resonates. Her words, together with video previously unseen by the public, drive home the violent reality of that day. The Capitol was under assault by a mob intent on blocking Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election, interrupting the orderly transition of power and, in effect, breaking American democracy.
There was nothing to stop the violent horde but Edwards and a few hundred other Capitol police and District of Columbia Metropolitan police officers. But instead of retreating to safety, they did their best to prevent the rioters from entering the Capitol building, and they did it long enough for members of Congress to escape. They stood in what was — yes, we’ll say it — a thin blue line, protecting the law, the Capitol and the nation.
