Why Did the Capitol Police Surrender the Building So Quickly?
Throughout history, armies have laid siege to the strongholds of their enemies. Usually, a city or castle would put up fierce resistance to prevent invaders from destroying their civilizations and ways of life. On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol building, and by extension the very institution of American democracy, came under siege. An army of extremists allegiant to a single man rather than our country or Constitution launched an assault on our most sacred democratic process. They aimed to disrupt or even overturn the confirmation of Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. Rather than defending our citadel of democracy, authorities seemingly allowed invaders to scale our walls, breakthrough our gates, and parade through our halls without retaliation.
I do not blame this shameful display on the Capitol and metropolitan police who were on the ground, as they were unprepared and at a significant numerical disadvantage. Undoubtedly some of them may have been complacent or even supporters of the movement, but I believe the average officer did what they could. The blame should rest on those responsible for organizing the police response to the march for Trump rally.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, who directs the DC national Guard, said, in discussing the events of January 6th, they “had no wildest imagination that you could end up breaching the Capitol grounds.” This sounds reasonable at first glance as the only other time the US capitol has been breached in force was when the British sacked it in 1814. However, all law enforcement agencies, not just the National Guard, largely dismissed online chatter suggesting that there would be an attempt to storm the Capitol and interfere with the election proceedings. On Monday, two days before the siege, postings on 4chan/pol/ message boards and TheDonald.win explicitly said protesters were planning to forcefully enter the building. Yet somehow, DC chief of police Robert Contee stated the day after the assault, “there was no intelligence that there would be a breach at the US Capitol.” To make the situation even more confusing, acting US attorney in DC Micheal Sherwin stated that, “There’s a lot of noise in social media…sometimes a lot of these postings are aspirational, but we took these postings very seriously.”
Cleary authorities did in fact not take these postings seriously. Security at the Capitol building was left to around 1,500 Capitol police officers, nearly the entire force, and about 1,000 DC police that were nearby but not directly defending the building. There were facing a mob of pro-Trump evangelists of an unknown number, but certainly much more than 1,500. Adding to the lack of preparation, the forces that were present did not possess all the necessary equipment to deal with a crowd that large. Law enforcement was further thinned out by reports of pipe bombs in nearby vehicles that had to be investigated and did turn out to be real bombs. This response is a stark contrast to this summer’s unrest in Portland, where online rumblings about burning down the courthouse were met with large numbers of federal agents and police in heavy riot equipment.
At 12:45 p.m, a growing number of Trump supporters assembled at the base of the Capitol building and began breaking through portable barricades that were put in place in anticipation of the attack. By 12:53 pm the mob had reached the steps of the building. DC and Capitol Police attempted to hold the line as both sides traded pepper spray and a melee ensued. Law enforcement was quickly overwhelmed and retreated up into the building as a tsunami of MAGA hats pursued, scaled walls, and filled the Capitol balconies. Around 2:10 pm members of congress evacuated as the mob broke through doors, windows, and the last line of police resistance. At this point, the rioters essentially gained free reign over the building, parading through tear gas in the rotunda, posing with statues, breaking into offices, stealing items and documents, and taking seats at the front of the House and Senate chambers. At some point in this chaos, one protester was fatally shot by an officer, 3 other protesters died of medical emergencies, and one officer sustained fatal injuries. Over the next 2-3 hours, more and more reinforcements arrived as the National Guard was activated in DC, Maryland, and Virginia, and agents from the FBI and ATF were called to the scene. Late in the evening, Congress reconvened to finish certifying election results and in the early hours of Thursday confirms Joe Biden’s victory.
These events not only cost 5 people their lives but also cost the United States its dignity. Such an assault on government and democracy simply isn’t supposed to happen in a nation as established and powerful as the United States. All enemies of our democracy, foreign and domestic, will surely see this as a sign of weakness in what has been the strongest nation on the planet for nearly a century. We must prosecute those who did this aggressively to avoid setting a precedent that you can cause chaos in our Capitol building and get away with it.
By Jake Bogartz