The vast majority of police carry semi-autos, typically 12-15 rounds in the mag plus 2-3 mags on the belt.
Him leading them away from where the Senators were sheltered changes things.
I’m amazed some idiot in that crowd didn’t set the place on fire. I more than half expected that while watching.
I too expected the Reichstag – I mean Capitol – to end up on fire due to “Antifa infiltrators” of the otherwise peaceful demonstration.
Wasn’t gasoline or something similar found on some of the busts and paintings?
Maybe chalk one up for gun control.
I think these stupid fucking idiots couldn’t decide if Officer Goodman was on their side or not.
They had reason to believe that some cops were on their side. They were so fucking confused because he was black.
I’m being a smart ass. Mr Goodman is a fucking hero. I can’t believe our leaders were forced to hide under a table in a dark silent room for 2 hours.
And some people just want to pretend it didn’t happen.
In case anyone else got confused the way I did:
The Washington Post (paywall) has an article this morning based on a wide-ranging interview with ousted Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund. Now obviously, he’s going to present his own role in the events of Wednesday in the best possible light. But in the interview he makes two claims that are particularly damning:
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He requested of his bosses (the House and Senate Sergeants-at-Arms) that he be allowed to request the DC National Guard to be on standby based on intelligence that the crowd would be larger than initially estimated. He was declined because of concerns about the “optics.”
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Once protestors had actually breached the Capitol, he made an urgent request to the Pentagon to deploy DC guardsmen. The Army representative on this call said he couldn’t recommend that the Secretary of the Army approve the request due to concerns about the “visual” of Guardsmen deployed at the Capitol. The first guardsmen did not arrive until three hours later.
Good fucking grief.
Yeah, let’s keep the “optics” in mind. How about the optics of Mike Pence hanged, or the Capitol going up in flames. “Oh, that’s no problem, 'cause none of my troops would be in the picture.”
Wait! Needed support from the National Guard is being thwarted by my bosses, so my response is to only use 25% of the forces I currently have available under my own discretion? Something doesn’t add up.
But this is far more serious than elements in the DoD/army exercising poor judgment in actually thinking the optics matter. That excuse is surely cover for standing down to let it happen, for pro-Trump collusion with the insurrection.
Yeah - I read this a.m. that the number of Capitol cops was the same as any other day. Nothing special about the nature of the proceedings or the context WRT to planned rally to warrant even a couple of additional cops on duty or the readying of gear?
I wonder - were the (easily breached) barricades any different than those normally in place?
Nancy Pelosi asks, what if he pardons the terrorists, as the reason why they need to get the President out quickly.
Forbes editor says that if any company hires Trump admin who have been shown to lie, particularly press secretaries, Forbes will tend not to believe their press reports They will be more vigorously fact checking those companies.
But I wonder why this wasn’t done before. Back when Sean Spicer left, I asked who would hire him since he was shown to be a liar. People said that he would land on his feet. Only now are people more closely scrutinizing their lies, after a bunch of people believed them. The Trump hires had control over their lies, not over who will commit heinous acts based on them. Forbes should have held them accountable back then.
San Francisco gearing up for a Trump protest at Twitter HQ. I’m wondering if much will happen now that the planning platforms are gone and many of the leaders are not allowed on commercial airlines.
Besides police and firefighters, there were also US army people at the protest. A US army officer in PSYOPS led a group of people to the protest. She had already resigned due to an earlier protest but was still on active duty.
All of these people tasked with our safety are trying to threaten the government. I’m not feeling safer.
Rainey had resigned her commission after receiving a career-ending letter of reprimand for her actions at an earlier protest in the Fort Bragg area
I understand that even though she resigned, she can still be court-martialed.
And I believe a court-martial strips all retirement benefits including pension. Oops! Wal-Mart doesn’t even hire door greeters anymore, what oh what will they do?
More precisely, conviction at a court martial may involve loss of pension, etc.
Any number of the rioters are going to prove to be current or ex-military, and are going to discover than military courts don’t play by quite the same rules as civilian ones.
What do you wanna bet “they can’t handle the truth”??
We have to make a clear line between the protest and the insurrection.
Those that just stood outside, yelled slogans and waved flags- that was their Constitutional right.
Those that broke into the Capitol building or had weapons, etc- they are guilty of a violent insurrection.
Many times more just stood around outside than stormed into the Capitol.
Does the article answer why he didn’t call for backup from the Metropolitan Police sooner? Or when did the Capitol Police call on the Metropolitans, because as I recall they were involved in clearing the Capitol afterwards? They’re a lot closer at hand than the National Guard, under control of the DC Mayor rather than the President or Defense Department, had recently clashed with Proud Boys and thus less susceptible to discounting them as protestors, and the optics of police rather than troops is better.
nm…