D.C. and ‘defund the police’

FUND the police. Arrest — and charge — rioters. Perhaps those two statements won’t be controversial after this week’s travesty at the U.S. Capitol.

What happened Wednesday was horrifying and disgusting. Rioters stormed past Capitol police and effectively took control of the building. They forced members of Congress and their staffs to flee for safety.

Law enforcement was woefully unprepared. On Tuesday, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, sent a letter to the acting attorney general and defense officials on security preparations. She said her police had coordinated with Park and Capitol police and the Secret Service and had unarmed National Guard members providing logistical support.

“The District of Columbia Government has not requested personnel from any other federal law enforcement agencies,” she wrote.

She didn’t think it was necessary, saying they were “prepared” for the demonstration. She worried that an unrequested deployment of federal officers “could become a national security threat” based on difficulty identifying them.

There is a need for coordination among law enforcement agencies. The unstated assumption of her letter, however, was that too big of law enforcement presence would increase the risk of violence. It was essentially a more nuanced way of saying “defund the police.”

Not a great strategy, as it turns out.

It wasn’t the presence of police that inflamed the mob. President Donald Trump riled them up by wrongly asserting that Vice President Mike Pence and Congress had the power to overturn November’s election results.

A greater police presence may have been able to hold off the mob or arrest the ringleaders before they broke through the barriers. Officials got it right two days too late. On Thursday, 6,200 Guardsmen were mobilized to provide security in D.C. More police, more peace. Last year, members of antifa attacked the federal courthouse and other buildings in Portland, Oregon, for weeks on end. One thing that contributed to the continued violence was that there were few consequences for the criminals.

Portland police arrested several hundred people.

But Mike Schmidt, the local district attorney, refused to prosecute those charged with crimes such as interfering with a peace officer and first-degree criminal trespass. He would prosecute rioting charges only if the person faced a more substantial charge. He said prosecuting those cases would “undermine public safety.”

That shouldn’t happen in D.C. There’s plenty of footage of those who trespassed and vandalized the Capitol buildings. Find them and charge them. In July, Trump urged prosecutors to put those who damaged Portland’s federal courthouse behind bars for 10 years. That same standard applies here.

Two years ago, there was broad bipartisan support for the police and for charging those who break the law.

May it return quickly.