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Chatting with friends about this, but wanted to say, based on 15+ years working with law enforcement:
The failure yesterday wasn't "letting them just walk in." The failure was not taking the thread seriously and then putting officers in a situation where they had no choice. 1/x
The failure yesterday wasn't "letting them just walk in." The failure was not taking the thread seriously and then putting officers in a situation where they had no choice. 1/x
Did Capitol Police know this was being talked about? There's no way they didn't. The FBI alerts government orgs whenever any sort of credible threat is out there - even if it's a march that just MIGHT go south. 2/x
So this means that Capitol Police were notified about the threat, assessed it, and decided to make zero preparations. I won't try to pscho-analyze how they made that assessment, but, uh, I have theories. 3/x
So then you get to the day, the crowd turns on the cops and they are not ready to fend off that many people. Riot gear cannot just materialize out of thin air. At that point law enforcement will almost always choose the path that keeps officers safe. 4/x
The damning part is not the letting people walk in - it's the HAVING to let them walk in to keep your people safe, when if you'd received a note from DOJ that BLM was marching on any random day, you'd have folks ready to go in full combat gear. 5/x
That's why this is on the Chief of Capitol Police.
That is where the buck stops. The department willfully ignored a threat and put their officers, the public, and the government at risk - because these protestors had blue line flags instead of raised fist ones. 6/6
That is where the buck stops. The department willfully ignored a threat and put their officers, the public, and the government at risk - because these protestors had blue line flags instead of raised fist ones. 6/6
