Friday, January 08, 2021 2:18:04 PM
How Many Trump Sympathizers Are Lurking in Law Enforcement?
The question has taken on new urgency as more details emerge
about the Capitol riot.
_By Charles P. Pierce
Jan 8, 2021
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a35163854/capitol-riot-police-response/?source=nl&utm_source=nl_esq&utm_medium=email&date=010821&utm_campaign=nl22560050
topshot trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they storm the us capitol in washington, dc on january 6, 2021 thousands of trump supporters, fueled by his spurious claims of voter fraud, flooded the nation's capital protesting the expected certification of joe biden's white house victory by the us congress
The story of Wednesday's insurrection at the Capitol continues to get worse. There is a slow but steady accumulation of evidence that, in some major ways, there may have been help on the inside. From the Washington Post:
In memos issued Monday and Tuesday in response to a request from the D.C. mayor, the Pentagon prohibited the District’s guardsmen from receiving ammunition or riot gear, interacting with protesters unless necessary for self-defense, sharing equipment with local law enforcement, or using Guard surveillance and air assets without the defense secretary’s explicit sign-off, according to officials familiar with the orders.
The limits were established because the Guard hadn’t been asked to assist with crowd or riot control. The D.C. Guard was also told it would be allowed to deploy a quick-reaction force only as a measure of last resort, the officials said...
...Early Wednesday afternoon, its chief made an urgent plea for backup from 200 troops during a call with top Pentagon and city officials, according to officials familiar with the call. On the call, Capitol Police Chief Steven A. Sund was asked whether he wanted help from the National Guard.
“There was a pause,” one of the D.C. officials said. And Sund said yes. “Then there was another pause, and an official from the [office of the] secretary of the Army said that wasn’t going to be possible.”
Oh, OK.
The Army official — who was speaking on behalf of the secretary of the Army, who was de facto commanding the D.C. Guard but was not on the call — said the “optics” of soldiers inside the Capitol building was not something they wanted, the two District officials said.
Meanwhile, the Capitol Police suffered from a mysterious collapse of its rudimentary intelligence-gathering function which, in this case, included such technological puzzles as surfing the Internet and watching the TV. Elsewhere, from the Post:
Those failures began days before the attack, when law enforcement agencies across Washington failed to prepare for an assault on the Capitol — even as Trump supporters openly plotted one online. They were compounded by the slow response on the day of the siege, when Capitol Police and other federal agencies did not head off a mass of Trump supporters who descended on the Capitol, egged on by the president himself, and command within the complex broke down...
...There had been signs that Wednesday’s protests could turn violent. Pro-Trump Internet forums had been full of posts promising violence. Trump had cast Congress — which was about to formalize his defeat in the 2020 election — as the target. So why would an attack against Congress be out of the question? “You didn’t need intelligence.
You just needed to read the newspaper,” said Michael Chertoff, who served as Homeland Security secretary from 2005 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. “They were advertising, ‘Let’s go wild. Bring your guns.’ You don’t need to have an FBI investigation. You just need to be able to be able to read.”
It's not just the videos of Capitol Police officers seeming to open up the barricades, or the videos of them tenderly helping rioters down the Capitol steps after the damage was done. For months now, people have been wondering exactly how many white-supremacist Trump sympathizers there are in our country's various law-enforcement agencies. That question has taken on a bit of urgency this week.
washington, dc january 06 protesters enter the us capitol building on january 06, 2021 in washington, dc congress held a joint session today to ratify president elect joe biden's 306 232 electoral college win over president donald trump a group of republican senators said they would reject the electoral college votes of several states unless congress appointed a commission to audit the election results photo by win mcnameegetty images
They just waltzed around.
And, as Rep. Eric Swalwell has said, one has to wonder if there were members of Congress or their staffs who were in contact with the more clearly militarized members of the mob. They planted bombs. One guy was wandering around with a backpack full of Molotov cocktails. Another guy was cruising the House galleries with a big bouquet of zip-ties.
Was he planning to take hostages? Sure looked like it. This all takes organization and discipline. They found their way to the parliamentarian's office on their own? Please. I know staffers who went looking for that place and were never seen again. And then there's this, from Business Insider:
While they did not furnish evidence that federal agency officials facilitated the chaos, Insider is reporting this information because it illustrates the scale and seriousness of Wednesday's events: America's international military and security allies are now willing to give serious credence to the idea that Trump deliberately tried to violently overturn an election and that some federal law-enforcement agents — by omission or otherwise — facilitated the attempt. One NATO source set the stage, using terms more commonly used to describe unrest in developing countries.
"The defeated president gives a speech to a group of supporters where he tells them he was robbed of the election, denounces his own administration's members and party as traitors, and tells his supporters to storm the building where the voting is being held," the NATO intelligence official said. "The supporters, many dressed in military attire and waving revolutionary-style flags, then storm the building where the federal law-enforcement agencies controlled by the current president do not establish a security cordon, and the protesters quickly overwhelm the last line of police.
Punchline.
"The president then makes a public statement to the supporters attacking the Capitol that he loves them but doesn't really tell them to stop," the official said. "Today I am briefing my government that we believe with a reasonable level of certainty that Donald Trump attempted a coup that failed when the system did not buckle. "I can't believe this happened."
In summary, this image tells you all you need to know. That's Senator-elect Raphael Warnock of Georgia, being arrested a few years ago for the offense of praying in a Senate office building.
https://ocgnews.com/atlantas-rev-raphael-warnock-arrested-released-during-july-18-protest-in-d-c/
The question has taken on new urgency as more details emerge
about the Capitol riot.
_By Charles P. Pierce
Jan 8, 2021
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a35163854/capitol-riot-police-response/?source=nl&utm_source=nl_esq&utm_medium=email&date=010821&utm_campaign=nl22560050
topshot trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they storm the us capitol in washington, dc on january 6, 2021 thousands of trump supporters, fueled by his spurious claims of voter fraud, flooded the nation's capital protesting the expected certification of joe biden's white house victory by the us congress
The story of Wednesday's insurrection at the Capitol continues to get worse. There is a slow but steady accumulation of evidence that, in some major ways, there may have been help on the inside. From the Washington Post:
In memos issued Monday and Tuesday in response to a request from the D.C. mayor, the Pentagon prohibited the District’s guardsmen from receiving ammunition or riot gear, interacting with protesters unless necessary for self-defense, sharing equipment with local law enforcement, or using Guard surveillance and air assets without the defense secretary’s explicit sign-off, according to officials familiar with the orders.
The limits were established because the Guard hadn’t been asked to assist with crowd or riot control. The D.C. Guard was also told it would be allowed to deploy a quick-reaction force only as a measure of last resort, the officials said...
...Early Wednesday afternoon, its chief made an urgent plea for backup from 200 troops during a call with top Pentagon and city officials, according to officials familiar with the call. On the call, Capitol Police Chief Steven A. Sund was asked whether he wanted help from the National Guard.
“There was a pause,” one of the D.C. officials said. And Sund said yes. “Then there was another pause, and an official from the [office of the] secretary of the Army said that wasn’t going to be possible.”
Oh, OK.
The Army official — who was speaking on behalf of the secretary of the Army, who was de facto commanding the D.C. Guard but was not on the call — said the “optics” of soldiers inside the Capitol building was not something they wanted, the two District officials said.
Meanwhile, the Capitol Police suffered from a mysterious collapse of its rudimentary intelligence-gathering function which, in this case, included such technological puzzles as surfing the Internet and watching the TV. Elsewhere, from the Post:
Those failures began days before the attack, when law enforcement agencies across Washington failed to prepare for an assault on the Capitol — even as Trump supporters openly plotted one online. They were compounded by the slow response on the day of the siege, when Capitol Police and other federal agencies did not head off a mass of Trump supporters who descended on the Capitol, egged on by the president himself, and command within the complex broke down...
...There had been signs that Wednesday’s protests could turn violent. Pro-Trump Internet forums had been full of posts promising violence. Trump had cast Congress — which was about to formalize his defeat in the 2020 election — as the target. So why would an attack against Congress be out of the question? “You didn’t need intelligence.
You just needed to read the newspaper,” said Michael Chertoff, who served as Homeland Security secretary from 2005 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. “They were advertising, ‘Let’s go wild. Bring your guns.’ You don’t need to have an FBI investigation. You just need to be able to be able to read.”
It's not just the videos of Capitol Police officers seeming to open up the barricades, or the videos of them tenderly helping rioters down the Capitol steps after the damage was done. For months now, people have been wondering exactly how many white-supremacist Trump sympathizers there are in our country's various law-enforcement agencies. That question has taken on a bit of urgency this week.
washington, dc january 06 protesters enter the us capitol building on january 06, 2021 in washington, dc congress held a joint session today to ratify president elect joe biden's 306 232 electoral college win over president donald trump a group of republican senators said they would reject the electoral college votes of several states unless congress appointed a commission to audit the election results photo by win mcnameegetty images
They just waltzed around.
And, as Rep. Eric Swalwell has said, one has to wonder if there were members of Congress or their staffs who were in contact with the more clearly militarized members of the mob. They planted bombs. One guy was wandering around with a backpack full of Molotov cocktails. Another guy was cruising the House galleries with a big bouquet of zip-ties.
Was he planning to take hostages? Sure looked like it. This all takes organization and discipline. They found their way to the parliamentarian's office on their own? Please. I know staffers who went looking for that place and were never seen again. And then there's this, from Business Insider:
While they did not furnish evidence that federal agency officials facilitated the chaos, Insider is reporting this information because it illustrates the scale and seriousness of Wednesday's events: America's international military and security allies are now willing to give serious credence to the idea that Trump deliberately tried to violently overturn an election and that some federal law-enforcement agents — by omission or otherwise — facilitated the attempt. One NATO source set the stage, using terms more commonly used to describe unrest in developing countries.
"The defeated president gives a speech to a group of supporters where he tells them he was robbed of the election, denounces his own administration's members and party as traitors, and tells his supporters to storm the building where the voting is being held," the NATO intelligence official said. "The supporters, many dressed in military attire and waving revolutionary-style flags, then storm the building where the federal law-enforcement agencies controlled by the current president do not establish a security cordon, and the protesters quickly overwhelm the last line of police.
Punchline.
"The president then makes a public statement to the supporters attacking the Capitol that he loves them but doesn't really tell them to stop," the official said. "Today I am briefing my government that we believe with a reasonable level of certainty that Donald Trump attempted a coup that failed when the system did not buckle. "I can't believe this happened."
In summary, this image tells you all you need to know. That's Senator-elect Raphael Warnock of Georgia, being arrested a few years ago for the offense of praying in a Senate office building.
https://ocgnews.com/atlantas-rev-raphael-warnock-arrested-released-during-july-18-protest-in-d-c/
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