Chief of Capitol Police to resign after breach
WASHINGTON – The head of the U.S. Capitol Police will resign effective Jan. 16 after the breach of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
Chief Steven Sund said Thursday that police had planned for a free speech demonstration and did not expect the violent attack. He said it was unlike anything he’d experienced in his 30 years in law enforcement.
Sund resigned Thursday after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on him to step down. Sund’s resignation was confirmed to The Associated Press by a person familiar with the matter.
Also on Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the chamber’s top law enforcement official, Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger, resigned after a request by McConnell.
McConnell said he asked for the resignation of Stenger, who is tasked with securing the chamber and protecting its 100 senators, after the “serious failures” that led to Wednesday’s deadly siege.
The breach halted the effort by Congress to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Protesters stormed the building and occupied for hours. The lawmakers eventually returned and finished their work.
Sund, in his first public comment on the mayhem from Wednesday, said in a statement that rioters “actively attacked” Capitol police and other law enforcement officers with metal pipes, discharged chemical irritants and “took up other weapons against our officers.”
The siege, as the House and Senate were affirming President-elect Joe Bi
den’s election victory, was “unlike any I have ever experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement here in Washington, D.C.,” said Sund, a former city police officer. “Make no mistake: these mass riots were not First Amendment activities; they were criminal riotous behavior. The actions of the USCP officers were heroic given the situation they faced.”
Lawmakers have mixed praise for the Capitol Police with harsh criticism for the outfit, which was overwhelmed by Wednesday’s mob and unprepared for it.
Lawmakers from both parties have pledged to investigate law enforcement’s actions and questioned wheteher a lack of preparedness allowed a mob to occupy and vandalize the building.
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser joined in the criticism of the po
lice response. “Obviously it was a failure or you would not have had people enter the Capitol by breaking windows and terrorizing the members of Congress who were doing a very sacred requirement of their jobs,” she said.
A large crowd of Trump supporters had rallied near the White House on Wednesday morning, and the president told them that he would go with them to the Capitol. He didn’t. Instead he sent them off with incendiary rhetoric. “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he said. “Let the weak ones get out,” he added. “This is a time for strength.”
Capitol Police, who are charged with protecting Congress, turned to other law enforcement for help with the mob that overwhelmed the complex and sent lawmakers into hiding.