Tyler Merbler
A photo of the January 6, 2021 United States Capitol attack.
Trump pardoned 1,500 for their Jan. 6 crimes.
Political stumping has become a fact of life for former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn.
At a Jan. 28 press conference at the state Capitol, he said he has been to Wisconsin around four times since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, when Dunn and his fellow officers suffered an attack from Trump supporters looking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The reason for his most recent visit: Brad Schimel’s failure to immediately condemn President Donald Trump’s pardon of 1,500 insurrectionists, including those who attacked police officers. The Waukesha County judge and candidate for Supreme Court initially said “presidents have the power to pardon,” when asked about Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons but later qualified that “anyone convicted of assaulting law enforcement should serve their full sentence.”
Dunn admitted he “doesn’t know Schimel’s policy on anything else, except for that he is supporting the rioters that attacked me and my coworkers.”
“That is not okay, and that is what brings me here,” Dunn said.
Liam Beran
Former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn.
Former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn.
Isthmus asked a Schimel spokesperson whether the candidate approves of Trump’s decision to pardon Jan. 6 offenders who attacked police, but did not receive a direct answer.
“I understand your attempt to make a point and tie Brad’s ‘Presidents have the power to pardon’ to only Donald Trump’s action, but you’re completely ignoring the fact that he’s saying the same thing about Joe Biden,” the spokesperson said. The spokesperson did not respond to a follow-up question.
The state Supreme Court race will decide whether liberal justices maintain their 4-3 majority on the bench. It has already drawn massive amounts of spending, attack ads, and national attention.
Dunn said Schimel’s support from a majority of Wisconsin’s county sheriffs and several police unions isn’t surprising. Such individuals and organizations, he said, show either a lack of care or attention: “Donald Trump isn’t new. This isn’t just some new person that just showed up on the scene. He’s shown us who he is since day one.”
Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, says the state’s largest police union, which has not endorsed a candidate in the state Supreme Court race, is disappointed with “the president’s actions, as any person who assaults an officer should face serious punishment. The enforcement of our laws should not be influenced by political considerations. Period.”
Still, Palmer says, “it’s too early to tell” how Trump’s pardons might play among law enforcement officers. Many officers expect Trump to be supportive of law enforcement issues, a view Palmer says is reflected in executive orders enacted immediately after Trump’s inauguration that lifted a ban on the use of the death penalty in federal cases, expanded immigration enforcement, and strengthened inspection requirements for counterfeit products and drugs.
