From News Nation:
“Report: Broad missteps left
Capitol Police unprepared Jan. 6”
A blistering internal report by
the U.S. Capitol Police describes a multitude of missteps that left the force
unprepared for the Jan. 6 insurrection — riot shields that shattered upon
impact, expired weapons that couldn’t be used, inadequate training and an
intelligence division that had few set standards. The watchdog report released
internally last month, obtained by The Associated Press ahead of a
congressional hearing Thursday, adds to what is already known about broader
security and intelligence failures that Congress has been investigating since
hundreds of President Donald Trump’s supporters laid siege to the Capitol. In
an extensive and detailed timeline of that day, the report describes
conversations between officials as they disagreed on whether National Guard
forces were necessary to back up the understaffed Capitol Police force. It
quotes an Army official as telling then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund that
“we don’t like the optics of the National Guard standing in a line at the
Capitol” after the insurrectionists had already broken in.
Inspector General Michael A.
Bolton found that the department’s deficiencies were — and remain — widespread.
Equipment was old and stored badly, leaders had failed to act on previous
recommendations to improve intelligence, and there was a broad lack of current
policies or procedures for the Civil Disturbance Unit, a division that existed
to ensure that legislative functions of Congress were not disrupted by civil
unrest or protest activity. That was exactly what happened on Jan. 6 as Trump’s
supporters sought to overturn the election in his favor as Congress counted the
Electoral College votes.
The report comes as the Capitol
Police force has plunging morale and has edged closer to crisis as many
officers have been working extra shifts and forced overtime to protect the
Capitol after the insurrection. Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman received a vote
of no confidence from the union in February, reflecting widespread distrust
among the rank and file. The entire force is also grieving the deaths of two of
their own — Officer Brian Sicknick, who collapsed and died after engaging with
protesters on Jan. 6, and Officer William “Billy” Evans, who was killed April 2
when he was hit by a car that rammed into a barricade outside the Senate. Evans
laid in honor in the Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday. The Capitol Police have so far
refused to publicly release the report — marked throughout as “law enforcement
sensitive” — despite congressional pressure to do so. House Administration
Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., issued a statement in March that
she had been briefed on the report, along with another internal document, and
that it contained “detailed and disturbing findings and important
recommendations.“ Bolton was expected to testify before her panel on Thursday. The
report focuses heavily on failure of equipment and training Jan. 6 as Capitol
Police were quickly overwhelmed by around 800 of Trump’s supporters who pushed
past them, beat them and broke windows and doors to get into the building. It
also looks at missed intelligence as the insurrectionists planned the attack
openly online, and as various agencies sent warnings that were disseminated
incorrectly. Bolton found that in many cases department equipment had expired
but was not replaced and some of it was more than 20 years old. Riot shields
that shattered upon impact as the officers fended off the violent mob had been
improperly stored, Bolton found. Some weapons that could have fired tear gas
were so old that officers didn’t feel comfortable using them. Other weapons
that could have done more to disperse the crowd were never staged ahead of the
rally, and those who were ordered to get back-up supplies to the officers on
the front lines could not make it through the aggressive crowd. In other cases,
weapons weren’t used because of “orders from leadership,” the report says.
Those weapons — called “less lethal” because they are designed to disperse, not
kill — could have allowed the police to better push back the rioters as they
moved toward the building, according to the report.
In terms of the Civil Disturbance
Unit, the report said there was a total lack of policy and procedure, and many
officers didn’t want to be a part of it. There were not enough guidelines for
when to activate the unit, how to issue gear, what tactics to use or lay out
the command structure. Some of the policies hadn’t been updated in more than a
decade and there was no firm roster of who was even in the division. The unit
was at a “decreased level of readiness and preparedness” because there were no
standards for equipment, the report said. Bolton also laid out many of the
missed intelligence signals — including a report prepared by the Department of
Homeland Security in December that forwarded messages posted on forums
supportive of Trump that appeared to be planning for Jan. 6. One part of that
document included a map of Capitol tunnels that someone had posted. “Take
note,” the message said. The report looks at a missed memo from the FBI in
which online activists predicted a “war” on Jan. 6 — Sund told Senate
investigators last month he never saw it. Bolton also details the force’s own
internal reports, which he said were inconsistent. One Capitol Police report
predicted that the protesters could become violent, but Sund testified before
the Senate in February that internal assessments had said violence was
“improbable.” On intelligence, Bolton said, there was a lack of adequate
training and guidance for dissemination within the department. There were no
policies or procedures for open source data gathering — such as gathering
information from the online Trump forums — and analysts “may not be aware of
the proper methods of conducting open source intelligence work.”
A timeline attached to the report
gives a more detailed look at Capitol Police movements, commands and
conversations as the day unfolded and they scrambled to move staff and
equipment to multiple fronts where people were breaking in. The timeline sheds
new light on conversations in which Sund begged for National Guard support.
Sund and others, including the head of the D.C. National Guard, have testified
that Pentagon officials were concerned about the optics of sending help. The
document gives the clearest proof of that concern yet, quoting Army Staff
Secretary Walter Piatt telling Sund and others on a call that “we don’t like
the optics” of the National Guard at the Capitol and he would recommend not
sending them. That was at 2:26 p.m., as rioters had already broken through
windows and as Sund desperately asked for the help. The Pentagon eventually
approved the Guard’s presence, and Guard members arrived after 5 p.m. While
they were waiting, Sund also had a teleconference with Vice President Mike
Pence, the timeline shows. Pence was in a secure location in the Capitol
because he had overseen the counting of the votes, and some of the rioters were
calling for his hanging because he had indicated he would not try to overturn
President Joe Biden’s election win. The AP reported Saturday that Pence also
had a conversation that day with acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller in
which he directed that he “Clear the Capitol.”
^ As a whole the Capitol Police
failed Congress and the American People on January 6th. They should
have had the proper equipment to use on that day as well as using lethal and
non-lethal means to stop the Coup Attempt. Anyone (Politician, Official, Ordinary
Person) who says there was no way to know there would eb violence in DC on
January 6th clearly lived under a rock. Trump had been making posts
and speeches since November 2020 about a major event on January 6th
in DC – when he called his supporters to join him there. This report not only
shows how stupid people can be, but also shows the need to file charges against
those in charge that ignored what was directly in front of them. January 6, 2021 will forever be a dark stain on American Democracy and American History. ^
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