How did the pro-Trump protesters get into Capitol Hill so easily? The security system of this high place of American power was much criticized, Thursday January 7, 2021, the day after the violence that shook Washington. The ease with which the security services have been overwhelmed by supporters of the Republican President waving “Trump 2020” flags and dressed in camouflage uniforms “is a massive failure,” said Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, announcing investigation. “Capitol security needs to be completely overhauled,” Hawaii Democratic Senator Brian Schatz tweeted.
Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi on Thursday afternoon called for the resignation of Steven Sund, the director of the Capitol Police, a 2,300-strong federal service in charge of congressional security, of his elected officials and their staff. A few hours later, Steven Sund submitted his resignation, effective January 16, we learned from a source close to the Congressional Police Chief.
There were more bodies, and more backup, and more arrests, when activists were fighting for healthcare. This is not just an operational failure. It is a catastrophic moral failure. We don’t just need reform and new procedures, we need new leadership. Trust cannot be rebuilt. https://t.co/EzVJVrWySg
– Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) January 7, 2021
Separate courts
Congressional security services had planned their response to a demonstration by supporters of Donald Trump, but were not prepared to respond to violence, Steven Sund admitted in a statement released in the morning. A Capitol Police officer fatally shot a female protester trying to enter an area of Congress through shattered glass. The agent was suspended and an investigation was opened, said Steven Sund, noting that the situation was particularly chaotic at the time and that other police officers had simultaneously defused two explosive devices outside the building. “I have never seen anything like the violent assault (on Wednesday) against the Capitol during my 30 years of career in Washington”, he justified.
As is often the case in the United States, the proliferation of jurisdictions has complicated the authorities’ response. Emphasizing the special administrative status of the US capital, which is separate from the bordering states of Maryland and Virginia, but which is not a state in its own right, the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, insisted during a press conference on the fact that she did not have the authority to send the military, police or National Guard into the precinct of Congress, which is a federal building.
“The Capitol police and the leaders of Congress have not made the decision to request the support of the National Guard” in anticipation of the rally of pro-Trump, yet announced for several days, she stressed. The municipal police were not called to the rescue until 1 p.m. local time (6 p.m. GMT), long after the first intrusions of pro-Trump protesters, said its leader Robert Contee. “Things were already bad enough at this stage,” he added, reporting 68 arrests, including 41 within the Capitol.
“No request for help”
At the request of the mayor of Washington, some 300 National Guard reservists, who had been deployed in large numbers during the summer’s anti-racist protests, had been put on high alert to deal with crowd movements in the city. and in the subway, unarmed, said Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. The latter, who de facto heads the National Guard of the federal capital, precisely because it is not a state, stressed having had several meetings between December 31 and January 3 with the other agencies concerned: the department in Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of the Environment, responsible for the safety of public monuments in central Washington, which is a national park, and the Capitol Police.
“There was no request for help,” he added during a conference call. Capitol police said on Sunday “that they would not need the assistance of the Department of Defense,” added Pentagon security officer Ken Rapuano.
Muriel Bowser extended the state of emergency for fifteen days, until the inauguration ceremony of Joe Biden, scheduled for January 20 on the steps of the Capitol. In addition, Ryan McCarthy announced that a two-meter-high barrier is being erected to protect the entire Congress complex, which includes the famous dome-topped building, but also several office buildings, until January 20. More than 6,000 additional reservists have been called in to help prevent any further incident by the end of Donald Trump’s mandate, who on Thursday promised in a statement an “orderly transition” without acknowledging his electoral defeat.
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