The union representing US Capitol Police officers rebuked the department’s top echelons on Wednesday, arguing that the leadership failed to relay important information to officers before the January 6 riot that left officers with serious brain injuries and one that will lose an eye.
Capitol Police Working Committee Chairman Gus Papathanasiou responded in a statement to what he described as an “astonishing admission” by Chief Yogananda D. Pittman to the House Appropriations Committee that “angered and shocked officers in base “.
During his testimony on Tuesday, Pittman said that information available as early as January 4 indicated that the event in Washington, DC, on January 6 “would not be like any of the previous protests held in 2020”, admitting that the department was aware “Militias and white supremacy organizations would be present”, some of these participants “intended to bring firearms and other weapons” to the event and “there was a strong potential for violence and Congress was the target”.
CAPITOL POLICE EXCUSE, ADMIT INTEL’S ADVANCED CONGRESS SHOWED BEFORE INSURRECTION
“The fact that they did not transmit this information to officers on duty before the insurrection is inexcusable,” said Papathanasiou. “The officers are angry and I do not blame them. The entire executive team has failed us and they must be held accountable. Their inaction has cost lives.”
Pittman “cites radio communications as a problem during the riots, but the real failure in communications was the silence of our leadership, before the insurrection and while it was underway,” said Papathanasiou. “They failed to share important information with officers in advance, they failed to prepare properly, they failed to equip our officers with a plan and that same day they failed to lead.”
“This was not a ‘whole department’ failure, but a leadership failure,” he said.
Nearly 140 police officers – between the United States Capitol Police and the DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) – were injured during the January 6 incident. Papathanasiou said officers who “did not receive helmets before the attack” suffered brain damage. One policeman has “two broken ribs and two broken spinal disks,” and one police officer “is going to lose his eye, and another has been stabbed with a metal fence stake,” he said.
“We have a policeman who lost his life as a direct result of the insurrection. Another policeman tragically committed suicide,” he added, referring to Capitol policeman Brian Sicknick, who died in hospital from injuries during “physical engagement” with protesters, and another Capitol Police officer, Howard Liebengood, who died of suicide days after responding to the incident on January 6.
DC POLICE NAMES SECOND SUICIDE OFFICER AFTER CAPITOL RIOT, RAILS AGAINST THE ARMY’S ‘TEPID’ RESPONSE
A second police suicide was announced on Tuesday – Jeffery Smith, of the DC Metropolitan Police Department, who also committed suicide within days of responding to the insurrection.
Speaking to Fox News about the injuries, Papathanasiou said he blamed police chiefs “who took off our helmets and gas masks weeks and months ago”. He said he believed it was an MPD officer who suffered an eye injury and “would also add that the union addressed the issue of helmets in writing, as well as at formal meetings, and the bosses ignored us.”
In his long statement responding to Pittman’s testimony, Papathanasiou said that the entire executive team – comprised of Pittman, former chief Steven Sund and deputy chief Chad B. Thomas – “knew what was coming, but did not prepare us better for potential violence. , including the possible use of firearms against us, is unfair. ”
“Our union has long advocated more training, more employees and better equipment, only to be repeatedly ignored by our leadership,” he said. “Still, acting chief Pittman now blames these glaring inadequacies for contributing to the failure to protect the Capitol on January 6.”
The union chief asked Congress to recognize that there are already leaders within the department – “some of whom fought side by side with officers during the insurrection” – who are capable of implementing the necessary changes, but “these leaders do not exist in the Head of Assistant Chief level, possibly Deputy Chief level, “he said.
The next boss should not be recruited from outside the department, he argued, because he or she needs to be “ready to work on the day”, have the confidence of officers and because “there is no time for training in the workplace. that we face. ”
“Our officers need leadership they can trust,” said Papathanasiou.
Papathanasiou also contested a detail in Pittman’s account of who ordered the US Capitol blockade on January 6. Pittman told Congress that he ordered the blockade, but the union countered that Inspector Thomas Loyd initially ordered the blockade and that Pittman’s order did not come until late.
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“Acting chief Pittman said he ordered the blockade,” added Papathanasiou. “To be clear, it was actually Inspector Loyd who ordered the blockade of the Capitol about an hour before Chief Pittman’s order. It was the only time that day that I heard interim Chief Pittman on the radio.”