It’s from Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund who isn’t the chief anymore….
Sund has given The Washington Post a look at the command problems he encountered going into last Wednesday’s Capitol protest that turned into a assault on his post’s, cops and US Lawmakers….
The finger pointing escalates as one would expect ….
It appears that The Capitol Police Chief DID go to his bosses in Congress the Sgt’s-at Arms for the House and Senate and advised that he would like National Guard Troops and more Wash DC Metro cops….
HE WAS TURNED DOWN Chief Sund reports…
Both the men he asked have been relieved of their duties…Sund resigned…..
It also turns out that only in Washington DC does the National Guard is under the control of the Sec of the Army …In peacetime each stats National Guard is under the control of that states Governor….
Wash DC is NOT….
It’s a Federal District….
And the Army initially wanted nothing to do with sending the troops Sund requested …They had been bitten before by requests to reply by the Trump White House….
Despite the media and congressional post mordums?
It appear’s the law enforcement chain of command was so rigid in the Wednesday incident that it failed to be responsive in real time….
One might also question why Sund did NOT act sooner with intel information of a possible violent protest coming for the FBI and the New York City Police Intelligence people….
Going forward the Capitol Police Department should be able to move oil its own if things a dangerous situation is coming at them…And should be able to get DC police assistance without going up the chain of federal command…
We’re talking about Congress here and THAT may also be part of the problem …
This isn’t politics….
It’s life and death security and safety…
They where lucky this time…..
This wasn’t just the chief’s fault….
THAT belongs to many others…..
In his first interview since pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol last week, Sund, who has since resigned his post, said his supervisors were reluctant to take formal steps to put the Guard on call even as police intelligence suggested that the crowd President Trump had invited to Washington to protest his defeat probably would be much larger than earlier demonstrations….
…
House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving said he wasn’t comfortable with the “optics” of formally declaring an emergency ahead of the demonstration, Sund said. Meanwhile, Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger suggested that Sund should informally seek out his Guard contacts, asking them to “lean forward” and be on alert in case Capitol Police needed their help.
Irving could not be reached for comment. A cellphone number listed in his name has not accepted messages since Wednesday. Messages left at a residence he owns in Nevada were not immediately returned, and there was no answer Sunday evening at a Watergate apartment listed in his name. A neighbor said he had recently moved out.
Stenger declined Sunday to comment when a reporter visited his Virginia home. “I really don’t want to talk about it,” he said.
It was the first of six times Sund’s request for help was rejected or delayed, he said. Two days later on Wednesday afternoon, his forces already in the midst of crisis, Sund said he pleaded for help five more times as a scene far more dire than he had ever imagined unfolded on the historic Capitol grounds.
An army of 8,000 pro-Trump demonstrators streamed down Pennsylvania Avenue after hearing Trump speak near the White House. Sund’s outer perimeter on the Capitol’s west side was breached within 15 minutes. With 1,400 Capitol Police officers on duty, his forces were quickly overrun.
“If we would have had the National Guard we could have held them at bay longer, until more officers from our partner agencies could arrive,” he said…
image…WashPost
Jim Sciutto
New: Pentagon has authorized up to 15,000 National Guard troops to meet current and future requests for the inauguration of Joseph Biden on January 20.
(There isn’t gonna be anymore problems with extra troops or cops to handle things in Wash DC)