‘Does anybody have a plan?’ – riot threat ‘not taken seriously’
AS RIOTERS stormed the US Capitol on January 6, many of the police officers had to decide on their own how to fight them off. There was no direction. No plan. And no top leadership.
One officer ran from one side of the building to another, fighting hand-to-hand against rioters. Three officers were able to handcuff one rioter. But a crowd swarmed the group and took the arrested man away with the handcuffs still on.
Interviews with four members of the US Capitol Police who were overrun by rioters that day show just how quickly the command structure collapsed as crowds, egged on by President Donald Trump, set upon the Capitol.
The officers spoke on condition of anonymity because the department has threatened to suspend anyone who speaks to the media.
“We were on our own,” one of the officers said. “Totally on our own.”
The officers said they were given next to no warning by leadership that morning about what would become a growing force of thousands of rioters, many better armed than the officers themselves.
And once the riot began, they were given no instructions by the department’s leaders on how to stop the mob or rescue lawmakers. There were only enough staff for a routine day.
Three officers told reporters they did not hear Chief Steven Sund on the radio the entire afternoon. It turned out he was sheltering with Vice-President Mike Pence in a secure location for some of the siege. Mr Sund resigned the next day.
His assistant chief, Yogananda Pittman, who is now interim chief, was heard over the radio telling the force to “lock the building down”, with no further instructions, two officers said. One officer, Lt Tarik Johnson, was heard by an officer on the radio repeatedly asking, “Does anybody have a plan?”
Despite plenty of online warnings of a possible insurrection and ample resources and time to prepare, the Capitol Police planned only for a free speech demonstration on January 6.
They rejected offers of support from the Pentagon three days before the siege, according to senior defence officials.
And during the riot, they turned down an offer by the Justice Department to have FBI agents come in as reinforcements. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
The riot left five people dead. Another officer died in an apparent suicide after the attack.
The attack has forced a reckoning among law enforcement agencies. Federal watchdogs launched a sweeping review of how the FBI, the Pentagon and other agencies responded to the riot.
Mr Sund told The Washington Post that he was worried about the possibility for violence and wanted to bring in the National Guard, but the House and Senate sergeants at arms refused. To bring in the Guard, the sergeants at arms would have had to ask congressional leaders.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, said the leaders had not been informed of any such request.
The office of Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, declined to comment.
Tens of thousands of National Guard members have been called to secure the Capitol ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden tomorrow.