USA TODAY International Edition
Police chief blasted for breakdown of security
Among the most striking images of law enforcement futility, on a day when chaos convulsed the U. S. Capitol, was of a lone, shirt- sleeved officer in retreat waving a baton at an advancing mob that had breached the Senate side of the building.
Flag- waving rioters appeared to stalk the officer who bounded up one stairway after another – with no immediate back- up to be found.
The stunning sight was just one in an ugly collage that laid bare a jarring breakdown of security at one of the country’s most iconic institutions, prompting the abrupt resignation of Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund.
Sund’s resignation, effective Jan. 16, came hours after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D- Calif., called for him to
step down.
More unnerving, perhaps, is that the attackers took their target with such remarkable ease nearly a decade after the 9/ 11 attacks prompted federal authorities to spend millions to bolster defenses across the capital to repel such assaults.
The failure also comes less than two weeks before what is traditionally one of the country’s most challenging security operations: the inauguration of a new president.
Federal lawmakers, District of Columbia authorities and law enforcement officials already are calling for a national examination of capital security – similar to the commission that studied the myriad breakdowns in advance of the 9/ 11 attacks – which Mayor Muriel Bowser described as a “catastrophic failure.”
Pelosi declared Thursday that she didn’t need a review and called for Sund’s resignation.
Referring to “shocking failures,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R- Ky., called for a congressional inquiry.
“Yesterday represented a massive failure of institutions, protocols, and planning that are supposed to protect the first branch of our federal government,” McConnell said Thursday.
William Bratton, who has led the country’s largest police forces in New York and Los Angeles, said it was “hard to comprehend everything that went wrong.”
Police chief defends plan
Nearly 24 hours after the launch of the attack which left four dead, including the fatal shooting of a 35- year- old demonstrator, Sund, in department’s first public statements addressing the incident, appeared to acknowledge that the department was caught by surprise.
“The violent attack on the U. S. Capitol was unlike any I have ever experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement here in Washington, D. C.,” Sund said. “Maintaining public safety in an open environment – specifically for First Amendment activities – has long been a challenge.”
In the face of mounting criticism, Sund said the department had “a robust plan to address anticipated First Amendment activities.”
“But make no mistake – these mass riots were not First Amendment activities; they were criminal riotous behavior,” the chief said, referring to his officers as “heroic given the situation they faced.”
Yet much of the criticism for the failed law enforcement response focused squarely on Sund and his 2,300member force.
Reels of video and photographs posted on social media show the rioters easily breaching Capitol barricades, with some officers appearing to step aside, continually give ground and even pose for selfies.
Many contrasted the police behavior toward rioters at the Capitol with what racial justice protesters encountered – including President- elect Joe Biden.
“Nobody can tell me that if it was a group of Black Lives Matter protesters that they wouldn’t have been treated differently than the thugs who stormed the Capitol,” Biden said Thursday. “We all know that is true. And it is unacceptable – totally unacceptable.”
It is unclear whether the officers’ actions were part of a crowd- control strategy or whether they were acting to protect themselves. Some of the supporters of President Donald Trump were armed.
In his statement, Sund did not elaborate on the planning for the event or the response to it, other than to characterize the planning as “robust.”
Yet the scene that played out Wednesday afternoon on live television, government officials and law enforcement analysts said, clearly depicted a lack of preparation.
‘ This is terrible planning’
Noting that Trump had called on his supporters to descend on the city to protest Congress’ certification of the November vote, Bratton said Capitol Police should have anticipated that the joint session of Congress would be target, adding that there was ample time to prepare.
“The advance intelligence could not have been clearer,” Bratton said. “I find it hard to believe that there was not more preparation. This is terrible planning; security perimeters were abandoned. Capitol Police leadership has a lot to answer for, as this was an awful day for American law enforcement.”
Indeed, nearly a month before Wednesday’s attack Trump sought to stir his base to action in a tweet, calling them to Washington for the Jan. 6 meeting of Congress.
“Be there,” Trump wrote. “Will be wild.”
And in the run- up to Wednesday afternoon, he continued to stoke anger among his supporters with repeated and unfounded references to a stolen election.
Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the failure to anticipate Wednesday’s assault was inexcusable.
“You didn’t even need to see any classified intelligence,” Hagel said. “All you need to do is read the news and listen to television or radio and hear what President Trump was saying. It was about, ‘ This day in Washington, January 6, is a big day. And we all got to come protest.’”
Hagel, who was a Republican senator before serving two years as defense secretary under President Barack Obama, said he was baffled by the response of the Capitol Police, referring to it as “unfathomable” negligence.
Hagel, in an interview with USA TODAY on Monday, predicted “bloodshed and riots” on Jan. 6 and on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day. He and the other nine defense secretaries signed an op- ed raising concerns about Trump’s “erratic” behavior.
“There seems to be no coordination, no understanding of the facts of the realities of the potential that was probably going to get out of hand,” Hagel said. “Again, it didn’t take any intelligence to figure that out. It was right out in the open for the last few weeks.”
Hagel also scoffed at the notion raised Thursday by Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, who oversees the district National Guard, that officials did not foresee the attack on the Capitol in their “wildest imagination.” Guardsmen, with shields and vehicles, could have been used to set up a perimeter far from the Capitol itself, he said.
Michael Sherwin, acting U. S. attorney in Washington, D. C., acknowledged during a call with reporters Thursday that authorities did not anticipate a breach of the Capitol, although he said Justice Department officials began preparing for the influx of protesters to the district weeks earlier by monitoring flights, hotels and social media.
“We have a lot of lessons to learn from this. ... Things obviously could’ve been done better,” Sherwin said when pressed about why the breach was not anticipated despite threats that had been brewing for weeks on social media.