- The Pentagon imposed major restrictions on the DC National Guard before Wednesday’s insurrection attempt, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
- Authorities restricted the ability of DC guards to send troops, receive ammunition and anti-riot equipment, interact with protesters, share equipment with local police and use surveillance without the explicit approval of Trump’s interim defense secretary, Christopher Miller, according to the Post.
- The guards did not arrive to support the US Capitol Police – which was ill-prepared and quickly invaded – until more than two hours after the USCP chief called them, according to the Post.
- The silent approach was supposedly intended to avoid reactions that followed an aggressive response to BLM protests last summer, but the response drew harsh criticism from Democratic lawmakers, activists and even some law enforcement experts for being insufficient.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
In the days before the Trump supporters’ attempted insurrection, the Department of Defense imposed major limitations on the tactics, equipment and resources that the DC National Guard could use to deal with the protesters, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
Pentagon officials sent memos on January 4 and 5 prohibiting DC guards from receiving ammunition and anti-riot equipment, interacting with protesters (except for self-defense), sharing equipment with the local police, or using surveillance or aerial means without approval. explicit defense of Trump Secretary, Christopher Miller, according to the Post.
The additional bureaucratic obstacle delayed the DC Guard’s response after United States Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund on Wednesday asked 200 guards to provide support – with the guards only arriving 2.5 hours later – according with the Post.
Five deaths, including a police officer, have so far been confirmed in connection with Wednesday’s violence.
The USCP, which had planned only peaceful protests – despite several warning indicators suggesting that protesters could become violent – were outnumbered by the protesters and were quickly invaded.
Read More: There is a reckoning coming to the Congressional police force that has allowed the worst violation of the US Capitol since the British burnt down the building in 1814
It is unclear how many police officers were on duty on Wednesday, but the USCP has a total of 2,300 police and civil servants who patrol 16 hectares of land and protect 535 members of Congress and their staff. By comparison, Minneapolis has about 840 uniformed policemen who police 425,000 residents spread over an area of 6,000 acres, according to the Associated Press.
DC guards were not initially sent to the US Capitol in large numbers, in part because city and Pentagon officials wanted to avoid the reaction that followed Trump’s aggressive use of federal law enforcement to attack peaceful protesters after death George Floyd, according to the Post.
USCP itself rejected several offers of help from the federal police ahead of Wednesday’s events and, according to the Post, Mayor Muriel Bowser had requested only 340 guards, most of them to monitor traffic and public transport.
But DC’s guard troops respond to state governors, and since DC is not a state, Bowser had to request additional support on Wednesday from the Pentagon, which responds to Trump – a task that has proven to be difficult and slow.
Bowser and his team, as well as legislators arrested on Capitol Hill, called on governors from neighboring Maryland and Virginia, who were initially ignored by the Pentagon when they asked military leaders to send additional guards.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, who effectively commands the DC Guard, said at a news conference on Thursday that 6,200 guards would be deployed by the weekend and that a “non-scalable” 7-foot fence would be set up around the Capitol . He added that military officials planned for Wednesday on the assumption that it would be like other recent protests and that even in their “wildest imagination” they did not expect protesters to violate the Capitol.
But law enforcement decisions – USCP, as well as local and federal agencies – not to prepare for riots have drawn strong criticism. Former DC Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey criticized the police response, telling CNN that “they need to arrest them without question” with respect to protesters inside the Capitol.
The USCP “was not ready for today,” Democratic Representative Val Demings told the Baltimore Sun, adding, “I certainly thought we would have a stronger show of strength.”
Activists also pointed to the disparity between the public force’s relatively passive response to violent demonstrators on Wednesday and the mass arrests and aggression used against peaceful anti-racist protests.
Sund, the head of the USCP and another senior Capitol security officer, have already announced their plans to resign, and others must go.