Capitol police officer suspended after discovery of anti-Semitic material at his workplace

“We take all allegations of inappropriate behavior seriously,” Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman said in a statement. “Once this matter was brought to my attention, I immediately ordered the suspension of the agent until the Professional Liability Office could conduct a full investigation.”

The officer will be suspended pending the results of the investigation, the statement said.

Fisch recounted his experience in a Twitter thread Monday evening, after the announcement of the suspension.

“When I left my Longworth office yesterday, I discovered something that, as a Jew, horrified me,” he wrote. “At the United States Capitol Police security checkpoint, someone left vile anti-Semitic propaganda for all to see.

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the text, titled The Protocols of the Meetings of the Sion Scholars of Zion, “is entirely a work of fiction, written intentionally to blame the Jews for a variety of evils.” Its exact origins are unknown, but it was introduced to Adolf Hitler as he developed his worldview and referred to in his early speeches, according to the museum.

Fisch said on Twitter that this episode was proof that not much had changed since the deadly January 6 riots on Capitol Hill, in which at least one man was pictured wearing a sweatshirt labeled ‘Camp Auschwitz’, a reference to the concentration camp where more than a million Jews were killed during the Shoah.

Fisch described the document as “in tatters and over two years old,” and said he had many questions about what it meant: had other officers read this? Did they share these same convictions?

“This is both a national security issue and a workplace safety issue,” Fisch wrote. “Our office is full of people – black, brown, Jewish, queer – who have good reason to fear white supremacists. If the USCP is all that separates us from the crowds we saw on January 6, how safe can we feel? “

Although Capitol Police were widely praised for their response to the riots – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced a bill to award her a Congressional Gold Medal – concerns were also raised about the actions a small number of agents, with videos showing their dismantling. barricades and, in one case, stopping to take a photo with a rioter. At least two officers have been suspended.