I feel very sorry for the front line LEO’s of all stripes. Dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t.
And while this was predictable, parking the National Guard around would also cause problems. Trump would just say “See, they are stealing the election.”
I’m not a LEO in any capacity, but it may have been wise to quietly move in a few hundred additional officers.
I always thought it was odd how law and order Republicans are so eager to ally themselves with white supremacists and militias that hate the police far more than any BLM activist does.
You have got to be kidding. They damn well should have parked some National Guard around. What you’re worried Trump might have said is exactly zero different from what he was already saying. Are you thinking that if the Guard was posted in view then something worse would have happened?
I heard on Nicolle Wallace that only a quarter of the Capitol Police were on duty yesterday when the rioting started. Given that it’s been obvious for weeks that there was likely to be trouble, I find this inconceivable* — unless there was collusion at the higher levels.
As far as opening the doors and letting the rioters in, one clip I saw appeared to show the entire group of officers at the top of the steps breaking back as a unit. Which fits in with another report I heard, that once it was apparent the building was going to be breached they were ordered back to protect the legislators and others inside. Which in turn squares with the comments I heard from several members of Congress, who had nothing but praise for the CP officers who were guarding them.
All of which is worth exactly what you paid for it (even less if you’re a Member).
* In this case, I think the word means exactly what I think it means.
So what’s Trump’s next step in his coup? About the only thing he hasn’t tried is declaring martial law. So are we going to get that? Along with a round up of his political enemies? [*]
.
[*] Disregard the fact that he has so many enemies that it would take a major operation to get them all. And he doesn’t have the organizational skill to do a competent job of it.
There was a point that the police decided that they could not hold the building, and decided to concentrate on getting the senators and congresspeople out.
The fact that a policeman was killed by the insurgents, shows that they were overwhelmed.
They had the chance to get help from dc, fbi, and national guard, but turned it down. They asked for help after it was too late.