> Begin forwarded message: > > From: Mark > > Capitol Rioters Planned for Weeks in Plain Sight. The Police Weren’t Ready. > Insurrectionists made no effort to hide their intentions, but law enforcement > protecting Congress was caught flat-footed. > > By Logan Jaffe, LYDIA DEPILLIS, ISAAC ARNSDORF and J. David McSwane , > PROPUBLICA > JANUARY 7, 2021 11:46 AM ET > https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2021/01/capitol-rioters-planned-weeks-plain-sight-police-werent-ready/171244/ > > <https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2021/01/capitol-rioters-planned-weeks-plain-sight-police-werent-ready/171244/> > > The invasion of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday was stoked in plain sight. For > weeks, the far-right supporters of President Donald Trump railed on social > media that the election had been stolen. They openly discussed the idea of > violent protest on the day Congress met to certify the result. > > “We came up with the idea to occupy just outside the CAPITOL on Jan 6th,” > leaders of the Stop the Steal movement wrote on Dec. 23. They called their > Wednesday demonstration the Wild Protest, a name taken from a tweet by Trump > that encouraged his supporters to take their grievances to the streets of > Washington. “Will be wild,” the president tweeted. > > Ali Alexander, the founder of the movement, encouraged people to bring tents > and sleeping bags and avoid wearing masks for the event. “If D.C. escalates… > so do we,” Alexander wrote on Parler last week — one of scores of social > media posts welcoming violence that were reviewed by ProPublica in the weeks > leading up to Wednesday’s attack on the capitol. > > Thousands of people heeded that call. > > For reasons that remained unclear Wednesday night, the law enforcement > authorities charged with protecting the nation’s entire legislative branch — > nearly all of the 535 members of Congress gathered in a joint session, along > with Vice President Mike Pence — were ill-prepared to contain the forces > massed against them. > > On Wednesday afternoon, a thin line of U.S. Capitol Police, with only a few > riot shields between them and a knot of angry protesters, engaged in > hand-to-hand combat with rioters on the steps of the West Front. They > struggled with a flimsy set of barricades as a mob in helmets and bulletproof > vests pushed its way toward the Capitol entrance. Videos showed officers > stepping aside, and sometimes taking selfies, as if to usher Trump’s > supporters into the buildingthey were supposed to guard. > > A former Capitol policeman well-versed in his agency’s procedures was > mystified by the scene he watched unfold on live television. Larry Schaefer, > a 34-year Capitol Police veteran who retired in December 2019, said his > former colleagues were experienced in dealing with aggressive crowds. > > Story Continues Below Sponsor Message > > > “It’s not a spur-of-the-moment demonstration that just popped up,” Schaefer > said. “We have a planned, known demonstration that has a propensity for > violence in the past and threats to carry weapons — why would you not prepare > yourself as we have done in the past?” > > A spokesperson for the Capitol Police did not respond to a request for > comment. > > In recent years, federal law enforcement agencies have stepped up their focus > on far-right groups, resulting in a spate of arrests. In October, the FBI > arrested a group of Michigan extremists and charged them with plotting to > kidnap the state’s governor. On Monday, Washington police arrested Enrique > Tarrio, the leader of the far-right group the Proud Boys, on charges of > burning a Black Lives Matter banner. > > Conversations on right-wing platforms are monitored closely by federal > intelligence. In September, a draft report by the Department of Homeland > Security surfaced, identifying white supremacists as the biggest threat to > national security. > > The warnings of Wednesday’s assault on the Capitol were everywhere — perhaps > not entirely specific about the planned time and exact location of an assault > on the Capitol, but enough to clue in law enforcement about the potential for > civil unrest. > > On Dec. 12, a poster on the website MyMilitia.com urged violence if senators > made official the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. > > “If this does not change, then I advocate, Revolution and adherence to the > rules of war,” wrote someone identifying themselves as I3DI. “I say, take the > hill or die trying.” > > Wrote another person: “It’s already apparent that literally millions of > Americans are on the verge of activating their Second Amendment duty to > defeat tyranny and save the republic.” > > The easily overpowered police force guarding the Capitol on Wednesday posed a > stark contrast to the tactics deployed by local police during this summer’s > Black Lives Matter protests. Then, the city felt besieged by law enforcement. > > On June 1, following a few days of mostly peaceful protests, the National > Guard, the Secret Service and the U.S. Park Police fired tear gas and rubber > bullets to disperse a nonviolent crowd in Lafayette Square outside the White > House to allow Trump to pose with a Bible in front of a nearby church. > > “We need to dominate the battlespace,” then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper > said on a call with dozens of governors, asking them to send their National > Guard forces to the capital. > > On June 2 — the day of the primary election in Washington — law enforcement > officers appeared on every corner, heavily armed in fatigues and body armor. > Humvees blocked intersections. Buses full of troops deployed into military > columns and marshaled in front of the Lincoln Memorial in a raw show of > force. Police kettled protesters in alleys. Choppers thudded overhead for > days and sank low enough over protesters to generate gale-force winds. > > Such dominance was nowhere in evidence Wednesday, despite a near-lockdown of > the downtown area on Tuesday night. Trump supporters drove to the Capitol and > parked in spaces normally reserved for congressional staff. Some vehicles > stopped on the lawns near the Tidal Basin. > > The contrast shook Washington’s attorney general, Karl Racine, who seemed to > be almost in disbelief on CNN Wednesday evening. > > “There was zero intelligence that the Black Lives Matter protesters were > going to ‘storm the capitol,’” he remembered, after ticking down the many > police forces present in June. “Juxtapose that with what we saw today, with > hate groups, militia and other groups that have no respect for the rule of > law go into the capitol. ... That dichotomy is shocking.” > > The question of how law enforcement and the national security establishment > failed so spectacularly will likely be the subject of intense focus in coming > days. > > David Carter, director of the Intelligence Program at Michigan State > University, said that sometimes, the best intelligence in the world doesn’t > translate into adequate preparedness. Perhaps the security officials > responsible for protecting the Capitol simply could not envision that a crowd > of Americans would charge through a police line and shatter the glass windows > that stood as the only physical barrier to entering the building. > > “I go back to the 9/11 commission report,” Carter said. “It was a failure of > imagination. They didn’t imagine something like this. Would you imagine > people were going to break into the Capitol and go into the chambers? That > failure of imagination sometimes makes us drop the ball.” > > This story was originally published by ProPublica. >
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