In the Spirit of Jefferson Davis (part eight)

 

Part eight.

 

 

Trump’s speech ended at 1:10 p.m. By that time, there was already violence on the Capital steps. The Terrorist Group the Proud Boys and others over-ran the first set of barriers outside the Capitol at 12:45, and started rushing toward the building. It’s estimated that 9,500 people eventually crossed the barricades surrounded the Capital Building, and many, many, of those entered the building itself.

 

Capital Police Chief Steven Sund called for back-up from the National Guard at 12:58p.m. This was disputed in the official time-line the DoD eventually produced, but later documented to be true. Sund has been blamed for at least some of the Capital Police’s un-preparedness, but it should be stated, he’d been requesting a National Guard presence since the prior Saturday, and had been refused by the Sergeants at Arms Paul Irving and Michael Stenger.

 

By then, Pence was already on the Senate floor of the Senate Chamber. Neither he, nor the other Lawmakers, understood the attack that was unfolding only a frisbee’s throw away.

 

The night before, a masked person wearing a hoodie and a pair of expensive Nike sneakers planted pipe bombs outside the Capitol Hill Headquarters of both the Democratic and Republican National Committees. These bombs are found (the first was found at 12:45 p.m, the second at 1:15p.m.) and the hazard scene is being managed, bombs being disarmed, and the investigation being conducted, by the local Police at essentially the same time Capitol Police were calling for backup as Officers struggled to hold off the increasingly violent Insurrectionists. It is broadly assumed these bombs were planted as a diversionary tactic, to thin Law Enforcement resources during a time of crisis.

 

At the beginning of the day, before the crisis, the Capital Police in the building numbered about two dozen. Re-enforcements, from that and other Law Enforcement agencies, did trickle-in all day, but the most important support, from the National Guard, hours late, but even then, Law Enforcement was outnumbered by Insurrectionists by at least eight-to-one. More importantly, almost all were shockingly unprepared. Before this fateful day, Capital Police had requested more support, but had not received it but there were also important steps the Capital Police could’ve taken on their own, but did not. They weren’t under the authority of, but coordinated with, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser her city’s local Municipal Police, and preparations for rioting had been made, but days earlier Bowser was explicit that she didn’t want a build-up of additional Federal Law Enforcement in the city on this date. As the events were analyzed later, multiple levels of Government and diverse Departments and Agencies, all displayed the same pattern: warnings were made, only some were heeded, preparations were made, but they proved inadequate, and worse still, there is evidence of deliberate obstructionism from the highest levels of the Federal Government.

 

After the day’s events, former and current Capital Police Officers were had harsh words for their Leadership (many of whom resigned soon after the Insurrection). Wrote Journalist Joshua Kaplan “The interviews also revealed officers’ concerns about disparities in the way the force prepared for Black Lives Matter demonstrations versus the pro-Trump protests on Jan. 6^th. Officers said the Capitol Police force usually plans intensively for protests, even if they are deemed unlikely to grow violent. Officers said they spent weeks working 12- or 16-hour days, poised to fight off a riot, after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police — even though intelligence suggested there was not much danger from protesters.”

 

There was Intelligence Briefings and planning based on it, of course, but much of it wasn’t shared with the Officers on duty that day. One complained of the lack of warning, “We went to work like it was a normal fucking day.”

 

Another stated, “It was business as usual. The main thing we were told was to be on the lookout for counterdemonstrators.” This weirdly echoes an email Trump’s Chief of Staff Meadows sent the day before, that the National Guard was on standby to “protect pro Trump people.”

 

Even before the Insurrectionist’s breached the Capital building itself, the violence on the west side was intense. First the insurrectionists pushed the barricades back into the Officers, they threw punches at them. One looked an Officer straight in the face and said, “Pick a side.”

 

Then they charged, up the steps in a frontal assault, climbed walls and the scaffolding erected for the Biden inauguration. They hurled rebar, plywood, power tools, M-80 firecrackers, and even cans of food they had frozen for extra damage. On Officer was hit with a chunk of steel above his eye, “setting off a geyser of blood.” They swung at Police with baseball bats. They soaked Officers in “never-ending streams of bright orange bear spray” and other chemical agents. Some officers didn’t have body armor or helmets, even more didn’t have gas-masks. Even those with gas-masks felt the chemical agents seeping through, interfering with their vison and breathing.

 

One Officer struck a Terrorist only to see a firearm pop out of the attacker’s waistband. Without another Officer to back him up, an arrest was impossible, so he just picked the weapon up off the ground, put it in his pocket, and continue fighting.

 

Another Officer described how a pepper ball, fired from behind him by his comrades, “exploded against the jaw of a man in front of him. The round, filled with chemical irritant, ripped the rioter’s face open. His teeth were now visible through a hole in his cheek. Blood poured out, puddling on the pavement surrounding the building. But the man kept coming.”

 

Soon the Officers have trouble keeping their footing because the blood and chemical against made surfaces slippery.

 

The Traitors carried US flags, Confederate flags, Nazi symbols, and QAon logos. The screamed obscenities and murder threats. “You fucking faggots! You’re not even American!” The Traitors called the Officers “Traitors.”

 

Local Police in riot-gear arrived before the Capital Police’s own Riot Squad, a few minutes after 1p.m. The local Police are led by Captain Robert Glover.

 

As for the Capital Police’s Riot Squad, they were already sitting on a bus, in full gear, awaiting orders. When they heard radio reports, one of their Sergeants announced, “Fuck this, we’re going.”

 

But once in motion, they were delayed be bad traffic and mass of Protestors. They had to abandon their bus and sprint across the massive Capital lawn, that’s how bad it was before by the time they arrived at the action. One of their Captain’s had also made a terrible, tactical, mistake, as at least some Officers were told to leave their gear on the bus, maybe to make their response speedier, certainly because they had no idea what they were jogging into.

 

Around this time, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican but not an advocate for the Big Lie, called Trump Aide Hutchinson and angrily told her not to let Trump go to the Capitol. Trump became irate by this suggestion, but does comply. There are even partially substantiated stories that Trump even becoming physical with Secret Service Agents before finally acquiescing.

 

At 1:25 p.m. Trump went into the private Dining Room adjoining the Oval Office, where he stays until 4 p.m. He spent the afternoon watching Fox News' coverage of his supporters attacking the Capitol. The chief White House photographer was told not to take pictures of Trump during this period. He sends much of that time on the phone or on Twitter.

 

At 1:31 p.m. Mayor Bower declared a State of Emergency and requested National Guard assistance three minutes later. She spoke with Sectary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy, but two days before, McCarthy’s superior, acting Sectary of Defense Miller, had reserved the authority to send the Guard to the Capital for himself alone.

 

 

Around 2 p.m. the first Insurrectionists breach the building itself, via the west side, after Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola smashed a window and stole a shield from a Capital Police Officer. On the south and east sides, Terrorists had broken through the outdoor barricades. The Capital goes into lock-down.

 

By this point Capital Police Chief Sund has requested National Guard and other support at least five times, receiving no satisfaction. Also, by this point, local Police Captain Robert Glover had requested reinforcements at least eleven times, and greater munitions at least five times, in his case, at least some of his requests are fulfilled. Even so, Glover’s Officers were overwhelmed, and within ten minutes he will be requesting authorization to fall back, but gets no response as to where to fall back to.

 

There was virtually no radio communication between Capital Police Leadership and their embattled Officers. Groups of Officers remained surrounded, with protective gear or back up. Other groups, in other parts of the building, had not yet faced the Insurrectionists, but couldn’t get any directives if they to hold their posts, or join the melee to back-up their brothers.

 

At 2:10p.m. Capital Police Chief Sund is informed he will receive no backup from the National Guard until it “goes up the chain-of-command.”

 

At 2:13 p.m. in the middle of the debate over objections to Certifying Biden's Electoral win in Arizona (this was first triggered by Senator Josh Hawley on December 30^th and then supporter by numerous others, including Senator Cruz) the order to evacuate the Chamber came in. Trump is informed of this, via phone call, by Senator Tommy Tuberville, yet an advocate for the Big Lie. Then Trump doesn’t send any message trying to stop his mob.

 

Senator Mitt Romney, a former Republican Nominee for the Presidency, not an advocate of the Big Lie, and most significantly, long-time Trump adversary, described having to reverse direction and flee when he saw the Insurrectionists.