This story was originally produced by The Keene Sentinel. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
On the four-year anniversary of Jan. 6, 2021, a Keene man who was at the U.S. Capitol that day wants people to focus on the law enforcement officers who were killed and hurt.
It's a day that stands out in the memory of many Americans. Millions watched from afar as TV cameras and cellphone streams captured unprecedented scenes at the U.S. Capitol.
For Jason Riddle of Keene, it was a turning point. While serving a sentence for his participation in the insurrection, Riddle got sober and had a political change of heart.
He said in an email last week that what he had been reflecting on most as the anniversary neared was the death of Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick.
Sicknick suffered two strokes after being pepper-sprayed by rioters and died at a hospital after collapsing at the Capitol during the attack.
"He was everything I was pretending to be. He was a veteran and REAL law enforcement officer who gave his life defending the rule of law against violence, lies and chaos," Riddle wrote.
Sicknick died the day after the riot, and four other police officers who were there later died by suicide, according to reporting from Reuters and other media organizations.
More than 100 police officers were injured and Capitol grounds sustained about $2.8 million in damage when supporters of President Donald Trump breached security while Congress was certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost.
Often between jobs due to alcoholism, Riddle told The Sentinel last year he used MAGA events as a coping mechanism.
Inside the Capitol building, he drank stolen wine and watched as other people kicked out windows.
Some 1,500 people would ultimately be charged for their involvement in the insurrection.
Among them was Riddle, who pleaded guilty in 2022 to three counts of theft of government property and five counts of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
He served 90 days in federal prison and three years of probation.
Riddle told The Sentinel last year incarceration forced him to confront his use of alcohol. In sobriety, he said, he looked back on Jan. 6 with new eyes.
And in January 2025, he formally turned down a pardon from Trump.
“I’d rather be able to look at myself in the mirror, even with the criminal record. Trump can keep his pardon," Riddle wrote in a letter to the editor in The Sentinel.
In 2024, he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for Congress in N.H. District 2.
As he looks back now, Riddle said he's grateful for Capitol police, and lives with regret at having endangered people.
