The Capitol Police Union exploded the leadership of the department one day after testimony from Congress by acting police chief Yogananda Pittman, who said the department knew two days before January 6 that there was a ‘strong potential for violence and that the Congress is the target. ‘
“The disclosure that the entire executive team (former chief [Steven] Sund, now acting chief executive Pittman, and assistant chief [Chad] Thomas) knew what was coming, but did not better prepare us for possible violence, including the possible use of firearms against us, is unscrupulous, ” union chairman Gus Papathanasiou said in a statement on Wednesday.
He said it was “inexcusable” that no one had passed it on to officers before the uprising.
The acting head of the US Capitol Police apologized during the trial on Tuesday for the fact that they were no longer prepared for the attack.
“Let me be clear: the department should have been more prepared for this attack,” Acting Police Chief Yogananda Pittman said in a written testimony to the House Compensation Committee, obtained by ABC News.
“I am here to offer my sincere apologies on behalf of the department,” she said in the remarks.
The acting chief of police of the Metropolitan Police, Robert Contee, who ordered more than 1,000 of his officers to help defend the Capitol, gave his own testimony at the closed-door congressional hearing and told the committee: ‘This assault on the Capitol exposed weakness in safety. in the safest city in the country. ‘
The unprecedented attack left police “engaged in a literal battle for hours,” Contee said. “Law enforcement training does not expect and does not prepare for hours of hand-to-hand combat.”
The deaths of three U.S. police officers in the Capitol in January – one from cancer before the riot, one from an injury sustained during the riot and one from suicide after the riot – and the removal of Sund, who by many as a ‘ policeman ‘who looked after his officers caused anxiety in the police of 2,000 people.
“This is a time when we need unity,” Andy Maybo, a Capitol police officer and former Capitol Police Union president, told ABC News. “Now is the time we need to get together, to point the finger and blame, can not fix the problem.”
“I do not think it is anyone’s fault – from Steve Sund’s Capitol Police to the latest officer in the agency,” Maybo said.
The chairman said some of his officers sustained serious injuries during the January 6 siege.
“I have officers who did not get helmets before the attack, who sustained brain injuries. One officer has two cracked ribs and two broken spinal discs,” Papathanasiou wrote. “One officer was going to lose his eye and another was stabbed with a metal fence.”
Maybo stressed that the mission of the Capitol Police – to protect members and staff – was carried out on 6 January.
“The officers knew they had to put their lives on property, so if people broke windows or broke doors, it did not matter so much as long as members of Congress, senators, the vice president and staff were protected,” he said. he explains.
Pittman also indicated in her testimony that on January 4, two days before the uprising, Sund asked the Capitol Police Board, which oversees the department, to “declare a state of emergency and grant a request.” to gain support to the national guard. “The request was denied, according to Pittman.
Capitol architect and Capitol police officer J. Brett Blanton said in a statement Tuesday that his office has no record of such a request.
Although the riot continued, Contee testified that he was’ dumbfounded by the army’s lower response ‘and’ shocked that the National Guard could not respond quickly to Sund’s request to deploy forces to the Capitol. part because they “did not like the optics of boots on the ground at the Capitol.”
For officers like Maybo, removing Sund was too quick.
“Chief Sund should never have to resign over this, the Speaker of the House should never have had to resign for his resignation, especially in light of the fact that he begged for help and pleaded for help from the National Guard,” he said. Maybo said.