Michael Fanone
Op-Ed by Cooper Tamayo
My father was a police officer with the NYPD for 27 years. On September 11, 2001, I was sent home from school early to find him gone into the chaos we were all sheltering from. I was eight years old. I don’t remember feeling afraid, but I remember understanding that something big and scary was happening, I remember my family gathered together, watching the news. And I remember my mom was afraid. Looking back now, understanding all of what happened that day, I still struggle to imagine how afraid she must have been.
In 2021, Michael Fanone went into a scene of chaos. He’d been a police officer for over 20 years and was responding to calls from officers in distress. He found himself faced with a mob. They dragged him down the stairs, beat him, sprayed him with chemicals. They tried to take his gun while others cheered that he should be killed with it. One man tased him multiple times in the neck, then sent a message to a group chat, “tased the f*** out of the blue”. Fanone sustained a heart attack and traumatic brain injuries, but he survived.
Others didn’t. Officer Brian Sicknick died after suffering multiple strokes as a result of his injuries. Four other officers later died by suicide. In all, about 140 police officers were injured while defending the U.S. Capitol.
January 6, 2021 was the kind of day my family hoped and prayed thousands of times my dad would never have to face. But we knew that he would, if it ever came to it, to keep us safe, just as Fanone and so many others did that day.
The men who beat Fanone to unconsciousness are now free. The man who boasted of tasing Fanone is free, less than 2 years into his twelve-and-a-half year sentence. Every rioter, regardless of their crime, has been pardoned or had their sentence commuted by President Trump, despite the Vice President’s assurances that, obviously, violent offenders shouldn’t be pardoned.
Trump made it sound like he couldn’t be bothered to parse through the 1500 or so convictions. “It would be very, very cumbersome to go and look,” he told Sean Hannity. Men died defending our nation, but keeping track of who assaulted them is too cumbersome.
Rather than an accident of laziness, Fanone believes Trump is sending a clear message: If you commit crimes on his behalf, he will support you. If you try to prevent him from doing what he wants, then you know what’s coming.
Whatever Trump’s reasoning, pardoning violent attacks on police officers is an insult to the men and women who risk everything to keep us safe. It is an insult to their families, who fear every day that the worst might happen. It emboldens extremist groups. And it invites yet more violence.
After January 6, Fanone was unable to return to the force due to his injuries. He ultimately resigned, but he continues to speak out about the attack on our nation’s Capitol. As a result, he and his family have received threats and suffered acts of violence. His mother has been harassed. Feces and bricks have been thrown at her and her home. Now, Fanone is seeking protective orders against the men who attacked him and may need to relocate for the sake of his family. If this is the thanks he gets, how can we as a nation continue to ask police officers to defend us?
Trump campaigned on bringing down crime, but betraying our police officers and freeing violent criminals will not make America safe. It will only make our country worse.
Cooper Tamayo, Yonkers
