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The Minneapolis police chief has joined a group of law enforcement leaders decrying President Donald Trump's pardons for all who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

 in the Minnesota Star Tribune over the weekend, calling Trump’s decision a “slap in the face” to law enforcement who were injured or died as a result of the riot, and those officers’ families. He told MPR News guest host Emily Bright that the Capitol attack was shocking initially but that he’s further shocked by how it’s been publicly normalized. 

“It wasn’t but a few years ago all of us watched on live TV for hours exactly what happened there as police officers were assaulted,” O’Hara said. 

Officers were bear-sprayed, pepper-sprayed, crushed into doorways, choked and beaten. Officer Brian Sicknick, of New Jersey, died after two strokes the day after the attack. Four other officers later died by suicide, he recounted.

“So it’s really unbelievable to me that, you know, we’re in a situation with politics being as extreme as it is, that we have so many people that are just willing to excuse the violence on police officers simply because of their politics,” O’Hara said.

While campaigning for reelection, Trump billed himself as the “law and order candidate” and said he’d inject record investment in hiring, retention and training of law enforcement and increase liability protection for officers. Some, including O’Hara, see his pardons on Day 1 of his second term as hypocritical.

“It’s just crazy to me, and it’s even more disturbing to have folks that, for lack of a better term, consider themselves in the pro-police crowd that excuse the pardoning of people who very violently assaulted police officers,” he said. “It’s just unfathomable.” 

When asked if it’s the place of a police chief to get political, O’Hara said no and that he believes police are foundationally independent of politics.

“However, we are to be held accountable to political authorities, and … I think that this is a very dangerous situation where we have so many people thinking that this type of violence can be excused simply because it promotes their political side,” O’Hara reiterated. 

The Trump administration last week mandated a freeze on civil rights litigation, which appears to include the Minneapolis Police Department and the U.S. Department of Justice’s consent decree. 

“No matter what happens with the consent decree, the City is committed to this work and to building upon the reforms we’ve continued to implement in the Minneapolis Police Department,” the city said in a statement on Thursday. “We will be moving forward with the terms laid out in this agreement, with or without the federal government.”

O’Hara compared the Minneapolis situation to that of Baltimore police four years ago. The department came to an agreement with the DOJ and filed it in federal court prior to Trump’s first inauguration. Trump’s attorney general tried to withdraw entirely from the agreement, but a federal judge in Baltimore decided to enter the consent decree anyway, “which is what I would expect would happen here if the same thing played out,” O’Hara said. 

He’s yet to hear from lawyers at the DOJ or the city. The consent decree is now in the hands of a federal judge. No matter, O’Hara said he’s committed to carrying it out, as many topics in the federal decree overlap with those in the state consent decree. 

“[There’ve] been dozens of community meetings over the last year, policies published online for community feedback that are in various stages of approval, both with the independent monitor as well as the state [department of human rights],” he said. “We have a leg up than any other city in this situation, and we are well on our way to implementing a number of these reforms that are already included in the state agreement.” 

MPR News correspondent Matt Sepic contributed to this story.

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Chief Brian O'Hara has joined a group of law enforcement leaders decrying President Donald Trump’s pardons for all who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

The Minneapolis police Chief has joined a group of law enforcement leaders decrying President Donald Trump’s pardons for all who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

Minneapolis police Chief calls Trump Jan. 6 pardons 'slap in the face' to officers

uniformed police chief speaks beside river

Minneapolis police chief calls Trump Jan. 6 pardons ‘slap in the face’ to officers

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