Capitol Hill Police Security Shocker!

A briefing detailing what went wrong with Capitol Hill Police security during the January 6th insurrection has left congressional legislators stunned.

Current Events
On Tuesday, members of the House Appropriations Committee received intel explaining how a mob of MAGA/Donald Trump sycophants were able to get past Capitol Hill Police, invade the US Capitol building, make it onto the floor of the House of Representatives and US Senate (where Democrats and Republicans from both chambers were just gathered), and even come within inches of harming the vice-president of the United States and other high-level congressional members.

Acting Capitol Hill Police Chief Yogananda Pittman publicly apologized to Congress, saying the “department failed to meet its own high standards” to prevent the attack.  She also admitted to legislators that although her department knew there was “strong potential for violence” targeting Congress, they did not take the appropriate and necessary steps to prevent it.

“Let me be clear: the Department should have been more prepared for this attack,” Pittman said. “By January 4th, the Department knew that the January 6th event would not be like any of the previous protests held in 2020. We knew that militia groups and white supremacists organizations would be attending. We also knew that some of these participants were intending to bring firearms and other weapons to the event.

“As the Acting Chief, I take responsibility for the mistakes that were made by the Department, and I pledge to this Committee, the Congress, the American people, and my USCP colleagues, that we will do better going forward, but we need to make changes,” she added.

The changes Pittman suggested were, according to her, at the core of the security failure. They include:

• A lack of manpower.
• A failure to have the right equipment on hand or easily accessible.
• A lack of consistency in following the process for sealing the building and communication over radios.
• A public address system failure which left it hard to hear during the attack.

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Acting Sergeant at Arms Timothy Blodgett spoke against the security assessment.

“It is clear there was a failure of preparation. Whether it was insufficient or conflicting intelligence, lacking ability to translate that intelligence into action, insufficient preparation or an inadequate ability to mobilize partner agencies for immediate assistance, a series of events, once thought unfathomable, unfolded allowing our most sacred halls to be breached. And, sadly, several lives were lost, including Officer Brian Sicknick and Officer Howard Liebengood,” Blodgett said.

In a response from House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), members were “shaking their heads in disbelief” regarding the ease of the security breakdown on January 6th. Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania called it sheer “dumb luck” more people didn’t die.

“People said today that there was ample evidence, that the intelligence agencies had ample evidence, that an angry mob was going to descend on Washington with Congress’ meeting to certify the election as the intended target,” DeLauro said. “They had the information. They did not act on it. And a question that I have, and one that I think we need to get to the bottom of, is, who made the decision not to act?” she asked.

Rep. Cartwright said he believes “people were more worried about optics more than they were worried about security.”

A cadre of Capitol Hill Police officers who are angry they may be blamed for the inaction of their superiors said they will hold a no-confidence vote against department leaders who were working on the day of insurrection, including Pittman. According to one officer, Pittman was the operational chief the day of the siege and “never took control of the radio or commanded officers what to do in any way, shape or form.” Other officers said they felt abandoned and betrayed by the department’s leadership.

To prevent another January 6th from ever occurring again, Pittman said USCP has coordinated with the National Guard to secure the Capitol and the complex surrounding it and has “taken steps to ensure” that USCP is sharing and receiving critical intelligence information from its law enforcement partners. She also added that the department’s intelligence director will now hold daily internal intelligence briefings with USCP officials.

OK WASSUP! covers Current Events:
Capitol Hill Police brief Congress on January 6th.