Queens electeds reflect on Jan. 6 Capitol riot one year later

This time last year, a rally for Donald Trump turned into a break in at the Capitol— and Queens was in the crosshairs. AP Photo by John Minchillo

By Rachel Vick

A year ago, right wing supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building to try and disrupt the certification of the election of President Joe Biden, trapping staff and Queens legislators inside.

Queens residents were among the people charged with encouraging violence or invading the building – they include Jia Liu from Little Neck; Eduard Florea from Middle Village; Brendan Hunt from Ridgewood; Sara Carpenter, a retired NYPD spokesperson from Richmond Hill; and Philip Grillo, a former candidate for Queens Council District 24 from Glen Oaks. 
Hunt was sentenced to 33 months in prison in December for posting threats against Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was sitting in her office when the Capitol was breached.

A year after the Jan. 6 riots, Queens legislators reflected on the attack during conversations with the Eagle.  

Rep. Grace Meng was trapped in the building, barricaded inside an office near the rotunda with one other person. There, she tried to remain as quiet as possible for about six hours while the insurrectionists paraded through the halls. Though she doesn’t recall anyone attempting to enter the room, the fear was the same, she said.

“The few hours of fear I and so many others had that day feel very real and current,” she said. “To me it’s still such a shock that people would infiltrate the Capitol like that and destroy property and harm other people in that manner.”

“I always think of the Capitol as a place open to the American people. Anyone can come in and observe democracy at its best,” Meng added. “We have class trips come in and even young children know you have to whisper, be respectful and not touch anything. So, to see people come in in such a violent way was really offensive; it felt like such a violation of democracy, of the process, of the basis of what this county is built on.”

One year later, she is still carrying the experience and emotions with her, but the time has shed more light on the depths of the day’s events. Learning that members of her home borough were active participants in the riot “was really disappointing.”

“Initially I thought of the people who attacked the Capitol as people from a different part of the country, who have nothing in common with me or my neighbors, but to find out these people planned…to go to the capitol and carry out violence in that was disheartening,” she said “People [in Queens] generally know that we can disagree on policy and have differences of opinion but we do that peacefully — we’re entitled to First Amendment rights but we don't get to incite violence and hurt others. “

In response to the attack, federal lawmakers formed the Jan. 6 Committee, which has done much of its work behind closed doors. Though it has subpoenaed leaders within the former President Donald Trump administration and others, it is not expected to release a report on its findings for several months.

Meng said that addressing the attack can and should be a bipartisan issue resting on a pillar of accountability.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, who was also trapped in his office watching with disbelief as the crowd surged, echoed the need for accountability. Holding the participating people responsible, he said, “has to take place, and individuals who are freedom loving and want democracy to survive, need to cooperate with that commission, so that we can make sure that this never happens.”

Meeks said that he’s still left wondering about the state of democracy in the U.S. following the attack.

“Just the sadness of democracy at stake in the United States of America, which you never thought would have happened,” he said. “And it continues to remain a question in my head right now, democracy is at stake in our country, we just should never take it for granted.”

The prevalence of white supremacist sentiment was of particular concern to Meeks, who was reminded of post-Reconstructionist backlash by the increase in Black, Latinx and women representatives who joined the halls of government during and following the Obama administration.

“It was sort of also a rebellion against them, like the post-Reconstruction period,” Meeks said. “To listen to some of our colleagues, again, those attitudes seem to exist in the personage of the former president and his clan.”

Rep. Carolyn Maloney emphasized the need to prioritize uncovering the full story and the just how deep — or high ranking — the participation runs.

“One year later, it is clear that the effort to undermine our democracy did not begin or end on Jan. 6,” Maloney said in a statement to the Eagle. “We must uncover the full truth about the attack and strengthen our institutions against voter suppression, election subversion, and presidential abuses to prevent future acts of domestic terrorism and preserve the sanctity of our elections.”

Additional reporting by Jacob Kaye