FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@sikhcoalition.org
Sikh Coalition Statement Against Pardons for January 6 Insurrectionists
January 21, 2025 (Washington, DC) — Today, the Sikh Coalition joins organizations across the civil rights ecosystem and Americans of all political parties in expressing our dismay and disgust that President Trump has chosen to commute 14 sentences and pardon more than 1,500 people involved in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In the aftermath of that horrific day, the Sikh Coalition spoke out, via both a blog post from our then-Executive Director and in a press statement calling for accountability for President Trump’s behavior inciting the violence. We continue to believe now what we stated then: The attack on the Capitol, which was spurred by months of lies about the election outcome and fully intended to disrupt the certification of that free and fair election, was a dark reminder of the fragility of our democracy.
To sweepingly pardon the individuals involved in this attack—from those who assaulted police officers to the far right extremists, including Proud Boys, Oathkeepers, and others who were plotting violence against elected officials—is in fundamental opposition to the basic tenets of our justice system. Our community knows better than most that we cannot allow history to be overwritten, and that impunity for those who perpetrate political violence only leads to more violence in the future.
As a reminder, the Sikh community is anything but a political or cultural monolith. Some Sikhs are conservative, others liberal, and many more fall somewhere in between or defy categorization entirely. As a 501(c)(3) organization, the Sikh Coalition does not take political positions in the framework of partisan politics. However, we continue to believe that Sikhs have not only a long history of speaking out against unjust leadership, but a spiritual imperative to do so. While we will not shrink from opportunities to defend and expand the civil rights of Sikhs and others under this new administration and the 119th Congress, neither will we stay silent on issues of grave concern to us all.
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