Washington, D.C., Police Union Chairman Gregg Pemberton expressed irritation during a Tuesday hearing as Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin focused exclusively on police officer assaults that occurred during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 granting âfull, complete and unconditional pardonsâ to an estimated 1,500 Jan. 6, 2021, protesters. Durbin used his questioning time at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on blue city crime to press Pemberton about the pardons for rioters who assaulted officers, but the union chairman noted that police officers have continually faced assaults, not just on Jan. 6, 2021.
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âWhat was your reaction when President Donald Trump gave a full and unconditional pardon to 1,500 individuals who had been prosecuted for violence against police officers?â Durbin asked.
Durbin appeared to be referencing the total number of individuals pardoned rather than the amount who had specifically faced prosecutions for assaulting officers. There were about 1,000 assaults on cops, based on a review of bodycam videos, according to legal filings by the Justice Department, ABC News reported on Sept. 2
âWell, itâs frustrating to see that, but what I point to is since that day, since January 7, 2021, through today, weâve had 1,537 officers injured where someone has assaulted a police officer, and 95% of those cases have been no-papered by the U.S. Attorneyâs Office,â Pemberton said. âSo, yes, itâs frustrating to have officers who are assaulted, but the vast majority of those people that assaulted officers that day were arrested and charged, and many of them convicted.â
Durbin again asked Pemberton for his âreactionâ to the pardons, but the union chairman pivoted to focus on general officer assaults.
âMy reaction is that itâs more frustrating to have suspects who assault police officers who are arrested by cops and have that case no-papered by a U.S. attorneyâs office than it is to have people who are convicted of crimes and spend years in jail and later be pardoned,â he said.
Durbin asked him to clarify his remarks.
âWhat Iâm saying, Senator, is more than 1,500 officers have been assaulted by people since that day, and nothing has happened to those suspects,â Pemberton said.
Durbin asked if Pemberton was equally outraged by assaults on his officers, regardless of where and when they took place.
âI donât think anybody should ever be assaulting officers, and if they do, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,â Pemberton said.
When Durbin asked Pemberton whether he believed the Jan. 6 riotersâ should have received the pardons, he answered that it appeared as though there was no focus on officers assaulted on days beside Jan. 6, 2021.
âMy frustration, Senator, is that no one seems to care about police officers who were assaulted after that day or before that day. It seems like people only care about police officers who were assaulted on that day in the calendar,â Pemberton said. âPolice officers are assaulted all the time. And no one seems to care about it. And thatâs our frustration.â
âWell, Iâm certainly not in that category, and I donât think most people are. But let me tell you something else. I spent a better part of my life in this building and the U.S. Capitol building, and I think you feel as I do,â Durbin responded. âIt is a cathedral to democracy and should be respected. And the people that broke down the windows, came in, and beat up on your police officers are despicable.â
Durbin has also used past hearings to focus on Jan. 6.
For instance, during a March Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on censorship, Durbin launched into a three-minute tirade about riot.
Moreover, Pemberton asserted on Fox Newsâ âThe Story with Martha MacCallumâ in August that officers were instructed to misreport crimes.
âInevitably you will have a captain or a commander or sometimes a lieutenant show up on the scene and advise them to take a report for a lesser offense,â Pemberton said. âOne of the things that we see them do often is sometimes there will be a shooting or a stabbing and if the victim is uncooperative with the police which is not uncommon in some areas of the city, they will be directed to take an injured person to the hospital report which is not even a crime at all but an incident report, sometimes you will have a robbery reported as a theft and other times you will have burglaries reported as unlawful entry or thefts.â
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