4 ms·

I think so, too. Openness is more important. But I have to say that the physical security before the Capitol building was laughable. There is a video of three p

I think so, too. Openness is more important. But I have to say that the physical security before the Capitol building was laughable. There is a video of three policemen trying to hold a makeshift barricade against more than 50 protesters. Obviously, they failed. The bottom line is that the police appeared to be totally understaffed even though the protests had been announced for weeks and were entirely predictable.

alkonaut 6y ago
The charitable take is that it was human error. Bad planning. The conspiratorial one is that it was deliberate. The question in that case is on what level (leadership, or on the ground). I hope investigations will show this. Who raised the issue of too little staff? Who denied reinforcements? Was there a massive number of officers calling in sick that morning? Etc etc.
- tsimionescu 6y ago
  I have stated this in other comments, but I feel it is extremely important. There is no rational way to attribute this to simple human error, given the overwhelming evidence of how protests on much more irrelevant topics, moments and locations are normally treated by US police. There can be no reasonable doubt that this was allowed to play out, with the few policemen stationed there being openly friendly with the crowd by some reports. The level where the decision to allow the protest to attack Congress was taken is of course up to the courts to investigate, but I feel it is disingenuous to claim that this isn't the most reasonable conclusion by far.
  - theklub 6y ago
    Just want to point out that police are friendly with protesters all the time and often take pictures with them even when they are anti police protests.
tsimionescu 6y ago
Openness is extremely important, but the rule of law is still more important. What we have seen last night was an attempt at mob rule, and it was almost obviously allowed by the police force whose duty it is to safeguard the security of the nation's most powerful institutions. This doesn't mean that the Capitol building should be turned into a fort. But there is a vast distance between being open in general on one hand, and allowing a crowd of people whose stated intent is to overthrow the legally confirmed the results of the presidential election to amass on the steps of Congress and to breach the building while the legislative is in session confirming those results at the federal level.

alkonaut 6y ago

The charitable take is that it was human error. Bad planning. The conspiratorial one is that it was deliberate. The question in that case is on what level (leadership, or on the ground). I hope investigations will show this. Who raised the issue of too little staff? Who denied reinforcements? Was there a massive number of officers calling in sick that morning? Etc etc.

tsimionescu 6y ago
I have stated this in other comments, but I feel it is extremely important. There is no rational way to attribute this to simple human error, given the overwhelming evidence of how protests on much more irrelevant topics, moments and locations are normally treated by US police. There can be no reasonable doubt that this was allowed to play out, with the few policemen stationed there being openly friendly with the crowd by some reports. The level where the decision to allow the protest to attack Congress was taken is of course up to the courts to investigate, but I feel it is disingenuous to claim that this isn't the most reasonable conclusion by far.
- theklub 6y ago
  Just want to point out that police are friendly with protesters all the time and often take pictures with them even when they are anti police protests.

tsimionescu 6y ago

Openness is extremely important, but the rule of law is still more important. What we have seen last night was an attempt at mob rule, and it was almost obviously allowed by the police force whose duty it is to safeguard the security of the nation's most powerful institutions. This doesn't mean that the Capitol building should be turned into a fort. But there is a vast distance between being open in general on one hand, and allowing a crowd of people whose stated intent is to overthrow the legally confirmed the results of the presidential election to amass on the steps of Congress and to breach the building while the legislative is in session confirming those results at the federal level.