Attack on U.S. Capitol was attack on our people and public service Statement from MAPE President Megan Dayton

For the first time in over 200 years, the U.S. Capitol was breached. A violent mob incited by President Donald Trump stormed the building in an attempt to overturn America’s presidential election and prevent Congress from performing its constitutional duty to certify the election of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

The attempted and failed coup at the U.S Capitol was nothing short of an attack on our people and an attack on the calm confidence of public service. These seditious acts of bigotry and hatred were directed toward the core of democracy. Anyone who attempts to obstruct the will of the American people has no place in our nation’s Capitol – the people’s house.

Yesterday, I found myself driving by our Minnesota Capitol Complex. Normally, this is the place where so many MAPE members and I work every day to fulfill our duty to serve Minnesota. To see that very same building locked down, in an effort to further protect our democracy, was striking.

Yesterday’s chaotic, disorderly, and destructive events are the manifestation of years of propaganda and lies from ideologues, who would undermine the voice of the people; all in a desperate attempt to hold onto undeserved positions of power. Those who perpetrated this violence and those who provoked and inflamed them must be held accountable.

Public employees, like MAPE members and the public employees who made sure to grab the boxes of electoral votes while they were being evacuated, step up every day to fulfill their duties – through global pandemics, economic crises, environmental disasters and every facet of public service. Minnesota’s public servants have always stood ready to rebuild and sustain because we know we must all work together to heal. The world is watching and we all must do our duty to ensure this shocking incitement of violence never happens again.