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US Capitol Riot Prompts Fresh Focus on Extremism in US Police Ranks

Masood Farivar

   WASHINGTON - The January 6 deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol has renewed
   attention to what has long been an open secret in police departments
   across the country -- right wing extremists populating their ranks.

   For years, even as experts warned about the growing dangers of
   extremism in police departments, many police chiefs brushed the concern
   aside as a social media nuisance.

   Now, in the wake of revelations that dozens of current and former law
   enforcement officers, firefighters and military personnel may have
   taken part in the January 6 riot, police leaders are being forced to
   own up to the problem.

   Five people died in the assault, including a Capitol Police officer,
   Brian Sicknick, who was struck in the head with a fire extinguisher
   thrown by a rioter, while many other police officers were injured.
   Former President Donald Trump is facing an impeachment trial in the
   Senate on charges of inciting an insurrection of his supporters at the
   Capitol to prevent the certification of President Joe Biden's election.

   At least 30 police officers from more than a dozen states, ranging from
   Virginia and Pennsylvania to Oklahoma and California, are being
   investigated by their superiors for their conduct in Washington, or
   face criminal charges for taking part in the rioting at the Capitol.

   "The biggest fault of law enforcement has been viewing the extremism
   language of fellow law enforcement officers and viewing it as freedom
   of speech instead of seeing that that language, those comments,
   actually chisel away at the democracy of America," said David Mahoney,
   the sheriff in Dane County, Wisconsin, who is president of the National
   Sheriffs' Association.

   Last Tuesday, as federal agents moved to charge a Houston Police
   Department officer in connection with the Capitol rioting, Chief Art
   Acevedo delivered a blunt warning to a group of cadets.

   "If anyone in this room right now believes that anyone needed to be in
   the Capitol building, you need to check out," Acevedo said. "You will
   not survive in this department with that mindset."

   Involvement in US Capitol riot

   The same day, Tam Pham, an 18-year veteran of the Houston Police force,
   was charged with two counts of illegally entering the Capitol building
   and engaging in disruptive conduct.

   Pham initially told federal agents that he and his wife had traveled to
   Washington on business and while he attended a Trump rally on the
   morning of January 6 near the White House, he did not enter the
   Capitol.
   But his story changed after agents searching his cell phone found
   selfies of him inside the building. One showed Pham standing next to a
   statute of President Gerald Ford draped in a Trump flag as rioters
   roamed through the building.

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