When I walked with Donald Trump’s supporters in the direction of the Capitol on January 6 and heard that some of them had violated the building in advance, I expected the situation to escalate sharply. I expected the police in military equipment and a response as aggressive as I had expected over the past year to cover and observe protest marches, where a single water bottle thrown at a police officer, a burst of tear gas and percussion grenades as revenge can bring.
Instead, I easily stepped inside the Capitol perimeter. At the entrances to the building, there were a few Capitol police officers trying helplessly to keep a line at the doors, but they were far fewer. The officers somehow got the doors closed again, but within minutes, rioters easily pushed past them again. When I was also inside, I did not see an officer at all, because rioters looted and destroyed furniture. When I did, it was even more surreal: they looked like they were there disguising themselves. Some were equipped with restlessness, others not, but most just stood there watching. Some rioters stopped to ask for their directions. In one of the only direct interactions I saw, a Capitol officer asked a rioter to put out a cigarette and then walked away.
I have never seen law enforcers at this demonstration show this level of control, much less a riot. And now we know why. A damning new report by Capitol Police Inspector General Michael A. Bolton, presented at a trial in Capitol Hill today, depicts a police force recklessly disregarding intelligence and its own response to each turn obstructed.
With about 140 officers injured, and one dead, there was an immediate blow in the immediate aftermath of the riot. Republicans were in denial. Former Capitol police chief Steven Sund resigned almost immediately. He writes in a letter: ‘Perfect reflection does not change the fact that nothing in our collective experience or our intelligence – including the information provided by the FBI, the secret service, the DHS and the MPD – indicated that a well-coordinated, armed attack on the Capitol could occur on January 6th. “Sund repeated this allegation just a few weeks ago in a testimony before a U.S. Senate committee: ‘None of the information we received predicted what actually happened,’ ‘he said.
The report stands in direct contrast to the new report, in which Bolton found that the leadership of the Capitol Police rejects threat assessments and that officials prohibit responding appropriately to the threat. The New York Times reviewed a copy of the document and reported that Capitol police’s own intelligence had warned three days earlier that ‘Congress itself is targeting the 6de. “There were warnings about who would be in the crowd: ‘Stopping the tendency to attract white supremacists, militia members and others who actively promote violence could lead to a significant dangerous situation for law enforcement and the general public.’ Bolton’s report also dug up warnings before the uprising of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, which was passed on to Capitol police that a map of the Capitol’s tunnel system appeared on Trump message boards.
But the 104-page report found that officers on duty should transport rather than restrict riot prevention equipment and not carry stun grenades, rather than step up security. Bolton wrote that “heavier less lethal weapons were not used that day due to leadership orders.” He added that the unit ‘operates at a reduced level of readiness due to equipment standards’ which reduces ‘service readiness’.
Even without this new report, it was clear that the Capitol police needed to do more. Anti-extremism experts have been ringing the alarm bells for months. Trump’s most ardent supporters gradually became more radicalized in the eye. But the report shows how negligent the brass of the Capitol police really was before the riot – which, as we saw in footage and in report after report, was almost more deadly than it ultimately did.
What is new here is the clear picture of how badly the police leadership also let its own officers down, the ones I saw confused behind the doors and in the corridors. Bolton reported that some of the equipment issued to police was faulty or out of date. Some shields ‘broke after offense’ because they were stored incorrectly. Some did not have shields at all because they were locked in a bus. The civilian disturbance unit, a seemingly unpopular post containing large crowds, had to “consequently respond to the crowd without protecting their riotous shields.” One riot that dragged a Capitol officer down the stairs and plowed into the crowd to be pushed is famously quoted as saying, “I fed him to the people.” Now we know who allowed him.
In his prepared remarks today, Bolton told Congress that he and his team “did not design our reports or intend to blame any individual or group.” But excerpts from the report, which have not yet been made public, make it clear that the capital police’s historic riot has made it possible. The findings strongly recommend reforms for the department and its culture, but do not mention at least one notable factor in the outcome, namely who the people who gathered were, and how many others would probably have played out, it would say, for example , Black Lives Matter protesters.
Months of reports after the riot drew clear, inevitable contrasts between the handling of the Capitol riot and the infamous Lafayette Square incident, including a study on police aggression and reaction. I have no idea what was in the heart of the former police chief or his leadership, but she and others’ actions seem to fit a pattern that any hyphenated American is very familiar with, the pursuit of perceived threats and the failure to provide evidence. based. policing based on stereotypes, or simply racism. Not only does it drive a dagger through the confidence of a community in law enforcement, but it is also an obstacle to obstructing actual policing. As much as this new report reveals, it leaves a fuller institutional account of what still happened on January 6 for another day.
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