U.S. Capitol police Steven Sund resigned amid criticism of the department’s response to rioters storming the Capitol in protest of President Donald Trump’s election loss.
Sund’s resignation takes effect Jan. 16, just days after President Joe Biden’s election, a police spokesman said Thursday. The announcement comes shortly after the head of the department’s union called for a “change at the top”.
Officials are “frustrated and demoralized” over how a lack of leadership undermines the response to the mob, according to a statement from union chairman Gus Papathanasiou. Papathanasiou blamed a failure and planning while praising officers for their work.
“We have prioritized life over property and led people to safety,” the statement said. “Not a single member of Congress or their staff was injured. Our officers did their job. Our leadership did not. Our law enforcement partners who assisted us were remarkable.”
The statement came too short because he had to resign the head of the force, Steven Sund. Sund praised the officers earlier Thursday and called their actions ‘heroic’ and slashed the chaos that ensued as ‘criminal riotous behavior’.
Police’s response to Capitol has been criticized for its inability to keep the rioters out of the building. Earlier on Thursday, Biden criticized what he described as a double standard between the way police respond to the pro-Trump mob and the way they treat Black Lives Matter supporters during the summer.
“No one can tell me that if it was a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they would not be treated much, unlike the crowd of thugs who stormed the Capitol,” he said. “We all know it’s true. And that is unacceptable. Completely unacceptable. ‘
In an interview with the NBC program “Today”, former Capitol police chief Terrance Gainer described the police response as “failure” and added that it “raises many questions”.
“There are clearly failures,” he said. ‘Many questions need to be asked and answers given. What is very clear is that the police underestimated the violent crowd and its size, and they overestimated their ability to control it. ‘
Rebels were able to infiltrate the Capitol on Wednesday in the first major offense since the 1812 war, when British soldiers burned the legislature. Trump spoke to his supporters earlier in the day and encouraged them to go to the Capitol to protest the election college score against Congress.
Authorities were eventually able to clear the building of the mob and allow lawmakers to return to what was previously considered a ceremonial process. Members of the House and Senate worked overnight to ratify ballots from all 50 states, confirming Biden’s victory.
