FINAL RETREAT
Quits amid breach furor
The chief of the Capitol Police resigned on Thursday after his agency failed to handle Wednesday’s riotous mob of Trump supporters, even as Washington, DC, authorities had advance warning that the crowd would be descending on Capitol grounds.
Chief Steven Sund (right) will step down on Jan. 16.
The Capitol Police, a federal force tasked with guarding the area and members of Congress, had underestimated the size — and will — of the mob that smashed its way into the Capitol Building and ran amok for hours.
“Capitol Police did have a plan, but apparently they assumed business as usual,” a law-enforcement official told The Washington Post, saying they did not expect the crowd from President Trump’s rally to attack the building.
“Bottom line, there just wasn’t enough personnel to prevent a mob from pushing in.”
Some officers were also out sick on Wednesday due to COVID-19 infections or exposures, sources told the newspaper.
On Thursday, authorities acknowledged there had been advance intelligence that the throng of pro-Trumpers was coming.
“It was the going-in position that it would be somewhat similar to Nov. 14, Dec. 12, where the types of groups that were there,” Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said at a press conference, referring to other pro-Trump rallies in the capital.
But, he said, “We . . . had no wildest imagination that you could end up breaching the Capitol grounds.”
Questions were mounting over how the Capitol Police — a 2,300member force with an annual budget of $460 million — failed to thwart the invaders.
One video shows the force’s officers on the steps of the Capitol appearing to allow the mob to stream onto the property. Once inside, the protesters roamed free, breaking into the Senate chamber and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office despite encountering Capitol cops.
Video on Twitter showed one officer stopping for a selfie with a protester, with other cops appearing to be standing among the mob.
Other details emerged suggesting that Capitol police took a kidgloves approach to the protesters, including fielding questions about where the bathrooms were.
“We just need you guys to get out of here safely,” one officer told a man, according to The New York Times.
Another cop was asked why they weren’t forcing the mob out.
“We just got to let them do their thing for now,” the officer said.
At around the same time, a protester shouted, “Traitor!” in another officer’s face. When a man apologized to him for the outburst, the cop replied, “You’re fine,” the Times reported.
Capitol Police requested help from the DC Metropolitan Police Department at only 1 p.m., the MPD’s acting chief, Robert Contee, said on Thursday.
“Things were already bad at that point,” he noted.
Sometime in the afternoon, Capitol Police also made a request for 200 members of the National Guard to assist them, Defense Department officials told The Washington Post — a request that could have been made before Wednesday.
“There were discussions previously with Capitol Police, and no requests of DC National Guard were made,” Secretary McCarthy said on Thursday.
By contrast, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser asked for the National Guard to back up the MPD in a request last week. Her request was granted on Monday.
The Capitol Police didn’t respond to questions from the New York Post about how it handled Wednesday’s protests.
In a lengthy statement, Chief Sund said his agency was “conducting a thorough review of this incident, security planning and policies and procedures.”
“The USCP had a robust plan established to address anticipated First Amendment activities,” Sund said. “But make no mistake — these mass riots were not First Amendment activities; they were criminal riotous behavior.”
Sund said more than 50 Capitol and MPD officers were injured in the riot, with several Capitol cops hospitalized with serious injuries.
“The actions of the USCP officers were heroic given the situation they faced, and I continue to have tremendous respect in the professionalism and dedication of the women and men of the United States Capitol Police,” he said.