House Sergeant-at-Arms William Walker told the congressional January 6 panel during a testimony that police officers would have used deadlier force against rioters had they been predominantly Black.
“I’m African-American. Child of the Sixties. I think it would have been a vastly different response if those were African Americans trying to breach the Capitol,” Walker told the panel in his April testimony.
“I think the response would have been different, a lot more heavy-handed response to, I think there would have been a lot more bloodshed,” Walker said. “You know, as a law enforcement officer, there were — I saw enough to where I would have probably been using deadly force.”
In his testimony, Walker compared the police response to the white Capitol rioters to the police response to Black racial justice protesters following the police murder of Black Minneapolis resident George Floyd. In the latter case, police used tear gas and less lethal munitions (like bean bag rounds), made arrests, and took sometimes actions that escalated the protests into uprisings.
“I’m an intelligence officer … to me, the intelligence was there that this was going to be a big deal,” he said. “You don’t need intelligence. I mean, everybody knew that people were directed to come there by the president.”
