“This memorial honors the brave men and women who broke into the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 to loot, urinate and defecate throughout those hallowed halls in order to overturn an election,” reads the plaque on the pedestal below.
The installation stands in direct view of the building that supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed on Jan. 6, threatening the peaceful transition of power and forcing a panicked evacuation of the nation’s leaders.
Four people died at the Capitol that day. A Capitol Police officer who had fought back the rioters died the following day, and several other officers who had been on duty died by suicide in the ensuing months. The riot caused some $1.5 million in damage to the building, and members of Congress have said that some of the participants urinated and defecated inside.
And yet half the country believes Fussolini that it was “a day if love”, trivializing what happened. I’d say this monument does less harm than the living being who enacted the event it references, and who is still out there with the same intentions.