Lawmakers, former police officials and security analysts expressed anger and amazement over how pro-Trump protesters were able to storm the Capitol with ease during Wednesday’s riot.
Capitol police were described as being completely unprepared for the anger and aggression of the president’s backers, who had been egged on by Trump to march to the Capitol at a protest rally on the National Mall earlier in the day.
GOPUSA Editor’s Note: Please keep in mind that this is a mainstream media story with the typical lean to the left. We publish the story for the purpose of informing our readers.
While one protester was shot and killed by police, other officers appeared to stand by and watch as the mob entered the Capitol building, roaming through its halls and ransacking offices as they sought to disrupt the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory.
Security analysts noted that no specialized police units were stationed in front of the Capitol despite the tense atmosphere in the city and violent clashes between Trump’s backers and police the previous night.
The mob appeared to encounter little resistance from Capitol police and no reinforcements arrived as the siege progressed, former Seattle police chief Carmen Best observed.
“I was wondering, where were the cops? If they don’t get there soon, what else could transpire?” she told NBC. “It felt like a very long time, and I’m sure millions of people were also watching and thinking the same thing.”
Given the heated political rhetoric over the counting of Electoral College votes, Best said it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that there would be a large protest at the Capitol.
“It all paints a picture and sets a tone for what is likely to occur,” she said. “It’s all about the staffing. Given what we’ve seen over the last several months, it shouldn’t shock people.”
“What happened here is a colossal failure, and I believe it’s a colossal political failure, not on the part of the police,” former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told USA Today. “They were outnumbered and overrun.”
Rather, he said, the incident was “the result of a lack of political will to control an attempted insurrection.”
“How it happened, I can’t figure that out,” former Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine said, adding that he was surprised arrests weren’t made as soon as rioters gathered on the Capitol steps, which is illegal.
“We protect the people, the place and the process that makes us the United States. That’s why we’re there,” he told the Washington Post. But Wednesday he said, “The people, the place, the process — all were attacked.”
“This was a piss-poor planning performance,” retired New York Police Department Deputy Chief Thomas Graham told The Daily Beast. “They weren’t prepared for whatever reason. They weren’t prepared to protect the Capitol. Shame on them.”
One lawmaker, Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., said Thursday she feared for her life when pro-Trump protesters stormed the Capitol.
“I was frightened that it would be a mass casualty incident, that if they had automatic weapons they could have killed hundreds of members of Congress,” she told CNN, adding, “It wouldn’t be unusual to come and present your opinion, but these were terrorists. These were thugs. These were dangerous people.”
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered that a state of public emergency she initially declared on Wednesday would be extended for 15 days until Jan. 21 — one day after Biden is expected to be inaugurated.
“Many persons came to the District armed and for the purpose of engaging in violence and destruction and have engaged in violence and destruction,” the order states.
“They have fired chemical irritants, bricks, bottles, and guns. They have breached the security of the Capitol and their destructive and riotous behavior has the potential to spread beyond the Capitol.
“Their motivation is ongoing. Today, they sought to disrupt the congressional proceedings relating to the acceptance of electoral college votes.”
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Just remember, the rioters from blm and antifa were “peaceful protesters” weren’t they?
AND cops were told many a time, “BACK OFF, give them their space”..
YET FOR WHEN WE get roudy “GO IN, use life ammo if you have to!”..
Stand down against blm/antifa, stand against the average citizen that just said no to tyranny
Hence why all those folk, who kept saying “TRUST the blue Trust the military, they won’t act against us, when push comes to shove;.
WELL< THEY DAMN WELL DID act against us.. SO who you gonna ask us to trust NOW??
The capitol police were unprepared because conservatives are s’posed to just back down and accept the fraud. To be clear, that mess yesterday should not have happened. Looking at the big picture, however, the term “mob mentality” was coined for a reason. You have a LARGE group of patriots frustrated with the corruption, throw in a few Antifa agitators, add in frustrations of Covid confinement and BOOM! Chaos. It is hard to observe the mass fraud and corruption and realize that there aren’t any consequences for the perpetrators when the average citizen can’t get away with running a stop sign.
Sorry about my ignorance, but is really illegal for a citizen to go to the peoples Capital building?
IT SHOULDN’T be… After all, it IS supposed to be OUR building.
That so-called riot was actually a false-flag event. It’s a “Reichstag Fire”.
After taking the 30,000 ft view of yesterday’s events at the capitol building, I’m convinced that it was an orchestrated event to make Trump supporters look bad.
You’ve got tens of thousands of people coming to DC to protest an election that was stolen. Congress meeting in the capitol building to certify a fraudulent election. Hardly any cops protecting the place. A badly-constructed gallows put in place for some sensationalist photos. Pictures of grinning idiots carrying confederate flags and hanging white-supremacy banners in the Senate chamber.
If you take the view of the establishment here…. What better way to de-legitimize people who are protesting an election that they know was stolen from them…. An election that you yourself helped to steal?
Hence why , like you, i think ALL OF THAT was agitated, or worse, STAGED by antifa/blm infiltrators..
I believe it was thought that these were “right wing” people, who support the police so the authorities believed the demonstrations would be peaceful. However, there are always “nuts” in every group and some “nuts” were probably not right wing but left wing activists.
Did we burn any building down ?? No did we kill any police ?? No did we create a Chaz area where no police are allowed ?? No but we are called violent. The fbi wants to arrest the protesters. Maryland governor called in the national guard. Said this was evidence of white privilege. I say BS. To the liberals what about black privilege ??? Shooting cops and crying they are the victims?? What about the Chas area in Seattle ???these are examples of black privilege.
Worse, the entire left wing (and even some in the right) are using this, to totally and utterly DISCREDIT ANYONE who supported trump, as a “Marxist, terrorist nutjob”..
I’ve already heard of at least two dozen folk, who’ve been supposedly fired, “Cause they participated in that rally turned riot.”… What’s the bet the left uses this to PUSH EVERY BUSINESS to fire other trump supporters/cease doing business with trump supporters…
I will be very hard to convince that the violence at the US capitol was not started by paid infiltrating left-wing professional agitators to torpedo any hope of a legitimate challenge of the election before Congress.
Even if those facts ever do come out, what exactly do yu expect to happen, cause of them???