With an academic lens: studies of protest and social movements typically focus on the "rebels' dilemma" - the collective action problem of getting people to show up

but there is also a state dilemma - when and how state actors engage in repression (and when they don't) https://twitter.com/AthertonKD/status/1346998543504969733

What did we see yesterday?

-a confused police force?
-an overwhelmed police force?
-an overwhelmed but sympathetic police force?
-a complicit police force?

I don't know.

Were state actors unable to effectively respond yesterday? Or unwilling? (Bit of both?)

Did they properly fall back and wait for reinforcements once overrun? Were they deterred by bomb/IED threats from inside the capitol?

I don't know.

What I do know is that these state actors (largely US Capitol Police) engaged in less repressive violence than similarly situated actors (largely MPD, but also assorted federal police) were in Summer 2020.

Why?