Caved? After watching
this cop actively calling and welcoming the crowd of "protestors" to head towards the Capitol building... "caved" doesn't quite seem to properly describe the situation.
That was at one failed barrier. There are other videos where the police are overrun. There is one showing the front steps where 12 cops are overwhelmed by 200+ thugs.
Their command hung those officers out to dry.
Meanwhile, there are other videos showing the Capitol Police beating the crap out of protesters on the other end of the building. I don't know how long that went on.
Honestly, the genuinely caught off guard stretches credibility to its very limit, at best - especially when it comes to the leadership. By the look of it, certainly, the
US' European allies aren't at all convinced that they were caught genuinely off guard.
Okay, I'll modify this to say that SOME of the rank and file were caught off guard. We're learning today that the FBI and DHS warned the Capitol Police that this was going to happen and offered help, and the Capitol Police ignored it. We're also learning that off-duty cops and off-duty active military members were part of the mob. We know this because they flashed their badges and military IDs to the Capitol Police.
I'd suggest that the failings demonstrated by the Capitol Police seem to be all too familiar when compared to so very many other police organizations, no matter who's employing them, so it's looking a bit more like a serious underlying systemic issue to me. Likely one more related to how the police is a bit too attractive as a profession to authoritarians, with all the associated consequences that has.
Here's the thing, unlike many other police organizations, the Capitol Police control an area of 16 acres with a force of 2,300 officers, and their budget is $460 million each year. In contrast, I live in Monterey County, our Sheriff's Department covers 3,771 square miles with 250 Deputies, and a $114 million budget.
So yes, there is a huge problem.
I find myself much more concerned about the dangers involved with allowing anti-government and potential hostile foreign actors mixed in (they had quite a lot of warning to be prepared to potentially take advantage of a situation like the one that happened) unfettered access to a number of unlocked computers in the building, honestly. Which is exactly what happened. The Capitol Building itself, pretty much in its entirety, and all the computer networks that can be accessed from it need to be treated as if there's been a major and serious breach.
Oh, this is a doo-doo show.
My fear is that Congress will respond as they did after 9-11-2001 and over-react while not actually addressing the problems in anyway. For example, somehow after 9-11, and the billions spent on security upgrades some yahoo wearing buffalo horns was able to storm the US Capitol Building and sit in the VP's chair in the Senate Chamber. As a tax payer I demand answers and steep punishments for the many failures of Tuesday.
I suspect the Capitol Breach will end up with its own thread here as more information comes in and more CTs are spun up by both sides.
