The Capitol Police were not only ill-prepared for the January 6th Donald Trump riot on Capitol Hill, but were purposely ordered by superiors to ‘hold back’ as white supremacists and other MAGA fanatics attacked Congress and attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Top News Today
In a scathing new watchdog report revealed by The New York Times last week, not only did Capitol Police have ample advanced warning about the Trump riot to infiltrate Congress and even kidnap or harm congressional members, but Capitol Police superiors issued a direct order to officers not to use their most aggressive tactics to hold off the mob.
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Former Capitol Police Chief Steven A. Sund and 2 other officials who have all since resigned in disgrace, claimed they had no advance warning that the January 6th Donald Trump “Stop The Steal” riot would turn violent and become a threat to the legislative branch of government. However, a 104-page document from US inspector general Michael A. Bolton has debunked those claims as hogwash.
On January 5th, Sund claimed that there were “no specific known threats related to the joint session of Congress” and that the likelihood of violence was “improbable.” However, Mr. Bolton discovered that not only did Capitol Police leaders fail to adequately prepare for the explicit warnings that pro-Trump extremists posed a severe threat to law enforcement, Congress, and civilians, but the leaders actually ordered their Civil Disturbance Unit to refrain from using its most powerful crowd-control tools — including stun grenades — to disable the invasion.
“Heavier, less-lethal weapons,” including stun grenades, “were not used that day because of orders from leadership,” Mr. Bolton wrote. Officials on duty on January 6th told him that such equipment would have been a difference-maker in helping police to “push back the rioters.”
Despite claims that nobody knew the Trump gathering would turn deadly and attempt to overtake the joint session of Congress, the report revealed that the FBI’s Norfolk field office in Virginia warned Capitol Police of a looming war at the iconic seat of government.
“Be ready to fight. Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in, and blood from their BLM and Pantifa slave soldiers being spilled,” the report revealed from a January call-to-action social media post. “Get violent … stop calling this a march, or rally, or a protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die. NOTHING else will achieve this goal.”
“Unlike previous post-election protests, the targets of the pro-Trump supporters are not necessarily the counterprotesters as they were previously, but rather Congress itself is the target on the 6th,” the inspector general’s report said. “Stop the Steal’s propensity to attract white supremacists, militia members, and others who actively promote violence may lead to a significantly dangerous situation for law enforcement and the general public alike.”
The report, which is titled “Review of the Events Surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Takeover of the U.S. Capitol,” has revived discussions that the Trump riot was so successful because it was an inside job with help from Capitol Police officials and possibly even certain conservative members of Congress as well.
OK WASSUP! discusses the Top News Today:
Were Capitol Police part of an inside job on Jan. 6th?
Reuters:
Police officers defending the U.S. Capitol against an attack by Donald Trump’s supporters might have quelled the violence sooner had their leadership not blocked them from using weapons like sting-ball grenades, a watchdog testified on Thursday.
Michael Bolton, the U.S. Capitol Police inspector general, told the House of Representatives Administration Committee that such equipment, which release dozens of small, stinging balls, “would have provided a better posture to repel the attacks.”
But he testified that a Capitol Police assistant deputy chief decided that such non-lethal grenades and launchers, could have been deployed in an unsafe manner, causing serious injuries. Protesters during last summer’s anti-racism demonstrations were injured by such weapons.
Bolton said better training would have been the remedy to that concern.