The former head of the US Capitol police says he will expect firecrackers during a rally in support of President Donald Trump after the violent takeover of “the people’s house”.
Former U.S. Police Chief Terrance Gainer said he would be fired if he was still in charge on Wednesday, when rioters broke windows, broke security and were trampled by the “House of the People” during ‘ a rally in support of outgoing President Donald Trump.
“When I looked at it, I was sick,” Gainer told WTOP. ‘It was almost heartbreaking to see them in the building, and to do what they did in the rooms and in the members’ offices. It was equally discouraging to see our Capitol police officers fighting hand in hand and having weapons. ‘
A young woman, who entered the building when Trump supporters forced their way through the doors and broken windows into the building, was shot by a Capitol police officer. The woman died at the hospital.
Despite President Donald Trump inviting supporters to Washington to challenge the counting of congressional college votes in President Joe Biden’s election victory, Gainer said police in the Capitol were clearly overwhelmed when protesters tried to get past barricades.
“A lot of questions will have to be answered,” Gainer, who served as Capitol’s U.S. Chief of Police from 2002 to 2006, served during President George W. Bush’s administration, and as U.S. Senate Sergeant of Arms, from 2007 to 2014. “When we lost the stairs and lost the upper deck on the east and west sides, it was a huge problem – it’s not supposed to happen.”
Gainer said people were likely to be fired after the siege.
“The people in charge of security are the two sergeants and the police chief,” Gainer said. “Ultimately, if it was me, I would expect you and others to say why Gainer is still where he is – that’s just the responsibility of the assignment.”
Steven Sund, the current police chief, was sworn in in June 2019.
“I hired him. He was my chief of staff at MPD. These are good people. “They will want to find out what happened and why it happened,” Gainer said.
Gainer, however, said he expects political leaders to demand accountability from Congress’s top legal official.
“The goat is going to stop at someone’s desk,” Gainer said. “And, you know, on the hill, there will be a lot of members who want to throw someone under the bus.”
Gainer’s leadership experience in crowd control in the country’s capital stretched ahead of his tenure as assistant chief of the Metropolitan Police Department during the 2000 demonstrations by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
When asked why police in the Capitol no longer took decisive action because rioters emptied fire extinguishers in the hallways, entered members’ offices and introduced them into the rooms, Gainer was unsure.
“It’s a disturbing question. “It strikes me that what officers are trying to do is follow the welcoming approach, up the hill,” Gainer said. “You want protesters up there, you like the noise, because it’s part of the life force, the mixture with the members.”
However, Gainer said once protesters passed barricades and were on the Capitol stairs, officers could not keep rioters out of the building.
If you’re in a situation where you’re fighting on that platform, you can start throwing people off and pushing people down the stairs, or deciding as long as they’re not in the Capitol, we can do that. But it left too many spaces vulnerable because it was close to doors and windows. ‘
‘But they are not supposed to get as far as they have achieved. And someone has to explain why it happened, “said Gainer.
Amid nationwide calls for police reform, Gainer was asked if the police would respond more aggressively if the walls that were scaled down, windows and doors broken and stolen from the offices of elected officials were not nearly completely white: ‘This is a fair question to lift. I know these people. I do not believe that was the problem. There was another failure. The officers were overpowered. ‘
However, given the investigation into the police response in the country’s capital, Gainer has a loss in explaining the failure of law enforcement to protect the Capitol during the highly accused last days of the Trump presidency, as he and his supporters are desperately looking for ways. for him to remain in office.
‘There are a lot of police officers up there. There is a lot of technology. There are quite a few intellectual activities. “There is good cooperation with the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, and the secret service and the FBI,” Gainer said. He stood still for the emphasis between each word: “This. Do not. Has. Has. It. Far. ”
Gainer expects that it will not only be the leadership of law enforcement who must answer for the first time since the British set fire to the Capitol in 1814, that a crowd has taken over the seat of American politics and freedom.
“There will be a settlement,” Gainer said, aside from the 52 people arrested Wednesday, mostly for violations of the curfew arrangement. ‘There are a lot of pictures’ on security cameras in the Capitol.
“And then some of these idiots went on television interviews and explained where they broke into the building,” Gainer said. “They have wonderful pictures of it.”