Jan. 6 response would have been ‘vastly different’ if rioters were Black, House sergeant at arms told investigators

By Ryan J. Reilly, NBC News

WASHINGTON — The House sergeant at arms, who was head of the D.C. National Guard during the attack on the U.S. Capitol, told the Jan. 6 committee that the law enforcement response would have looked much different had the rioters been Black Americans.

“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,” William J. Walker told congressional investigators, in an interview transcript released Tuesday. “As a career law enforcement officer, part-time soldier, last 5 years full but, but a law enforcement officer my entire career, the law enforcement response would have been different.”

Walker’s testimony echoed the observations of many Americans, including President Joe Biden, who noted the stark difference in the law enforcement response to protests in D.C. following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd and the lax security at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Walker indicated he thought that more rioters would have died at the hands of law enforcement on Jan. 6 had the makeup of the crowd not been overwhelmingly white.

“You know, as a law enforcement officer, there were — I saw enough to where I would have probably been using deadly force,” Walker said. “I think it would have been more bloodshed if the composition would have been different.”

Walker, a former Drug Enforcement Administration official who became House sergeant at arms in April 2021, also described his personal experiences with discriminatory law enforcement stops, and discussed having “the talk” with his five children and his granddaughter about surviving police encounters as a Black American.

“You’re looking at somebody who would get stopped by the police for driving a high-value government vehicle. No other reason,” Walker said.

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