Capitol Attack Update: Lawmakers Demand Answers After Failed Police Response

U.S. lawmakers are demanding answers from the police force tasked with securing the nation’s capital after supporters of President Donald Trump breached the Capitol building on Wednesday for the first time since British forces did so in 1814.

Pro-Trump supporters marched on the Capitol building on Wednesday, seemingly at the behest of the president who spoke out at a rally earlier in the day about unfounded claims that the Nov. 3 election was fraudulent.

The protests were seemingly planned well in advance. The president on Dec. 23 used his Twitter account to call on his supporters to “be wild” on Jan. 6, when Congress was scheduled to certify the results of the Electoral College.

Reporting from PBS finds leaders of the so-called Stop the Steal movement of anti-election protesters answered that same day that they would “occupy” an area outside the Capitol building.

Despite the early warning signals, Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, said it appeared Capitol police were unprepared for the events.

“I think it’s pretty clear that there’s going to be a number of people who are going to be without employment very, very soon because this is an embarrassment both on behalf of the mob, and the president, and the insurrection, and the attempted coup, but also the lack of professional planning and dealing with what we knew was going to occur,” he was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

Elsewhere, a senior federal law enforcement official familiar with police planning told Reuters the Capitol police looked like amateurs.

“It should have never happened. We all knew in advance that these people were coming, and the first order of policing is presence,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “The Capitol Police force is essentially a guard force, so it’s hard to understand why they weren’t better prepared.”

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat and chair of the House Administration Committee, said the breach raised “grave” concerns about security at the Capitol building. She vowed to work with members of Congress to investigate the police response.

Rep. Val Demings, D.-Fla., a former police chief, said it was obvious police were not prepared for the onslaught.

“I certainly thought that we would have had a stronger show of force, that there would have been steps taken in the very beginning to make sure that there was a designated area for the protesters in a safe distance from the Capitol,” he was quoted by the AP as saying.

From the public, observers on social media noted the disparity between the strong police presence during Black Lives Matter protests during the summer and the lack of response to an overwhelmingly Caucasian crowd at the capital on Wednesday.

In calling for Trump to be removed from office, the NAACP said it witnessed a double-standard in policing on Wednesday.

“In the latest show of failed leadership, we witnessed the Capitol under siege by bad actors who had no other objective than to disrupt the constitutional proceedings of a fair and rightful transition of power,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement.

Neighboring states eventually sent in their National Guard units to help quell the uprising. According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Defense Department was hesitant to show a strong force presence out of concern of militarizing the situation.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, joined three other Republicans, six Democrats and one independent in condemning what was described as an insurgency.

“This is not a peaceful protest – this is an insurrection,” they said in a joint statement. “These individuals should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Capitol police had no public statement on Wednesday’s violence. According to CBS News, four people died during the unrest, including one woman who was shot by police inside the Capitol building. More than 52 people were arrested, largely for curfew violations.

Despite the unrest and objections from a handful of lawmakers supporting Trump’s effort to overturn a democratic election, lawmakers reconvened early Thursday to certify an Electoral College vote that puts former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in the White House.

Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a public emergency that extends through Jan. 21, one day after the swearing-in ceremony for Biden.