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Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which at that point was probably the correct decision. What’s the other option? Get overwhelmed by the crowd or attacked from behind?
Gas, less-lethal bullets, flashbangs. The stuff I've been seeing a few blocks away for most of the summer. All of those things are really good at dispersing crowds.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did you see the riots this summer? Probably over 20 police were shot.
Given that there were literally millions of protestors on the streets over the summer, 20 is a pretty tiny number. Multiple people have already died from the DC attacks, just in two days in one city, with a much smaller number of people. That’s just comparing the number of deaths, and putting aside that one was a massive distributed protest of government brutality and the other was an attempted coup.
"The DHS’s “Homeland Threat Assessment” found that White supremacy extremism accounted for more fatal attacks in the U.S. than any other domestic violent extremist group since 2018, with eight of the 16 violent reported from 2018 through 2019."
For comparison, 9/11 killed 2,977 people. So it seems there is a problem with how DHS is measuring and reporting rare events.
That was the strangest aspect of Wednesday to me. They knew there was going to be a huge rally that day. Surely that alone would warrant beefed up security. And the idea that it was just because "they're white people" doesn't add up - even if that were their logic, it was a pro-Trump rally, wouldn't they expect counter-protesters? Weren't there weeks of Proud Boy/Antifa scuffles and violence directly preceding this?…
The cops are racist, but they also wouldn't be this friendly had a white leftist protest escalated.
The DC mayor didn't want any federal assistance https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/06/dc-mayor-told-federal-l...
The DC mayor didn't want any federal assistance https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/06/dc-mayor-told-federal-l...
Let’s be blunt... because white people. This is the same thing that happened in Charlottesville and the after action review of Charlottesville made that clear. No one listened. The need here isn’t more police or more training or more gear. Any of those things would just be used to harm people of color and low income communities. What needs to happen is people stop being taken in by bad faith arguments about “free spe…
If a random group of white Americans decided to invade the Capitol, do you have any doubt that they'd have been stopped dead in their tracks before being able to put a foot inside?
As comforting a viewpoint as that may be, allies and enemies of the US state aren't decided based on their skin color.
[1] e.g. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_citizen_movement
But the police also rejected offers of federal help: https://apnews.com/article/capitol-police-reject-federal-hel... Propaganda war to escape the blame, DC municipality against feds? Something else?
Let’s be blunt... because white people. This is the same thing that happened in Charlottesville and the after action review of Charlottesville made that clear. No one listened. The need here isn’t more police or more training or more gear. Any of those things would just be used to harm people of color and low income communities. What needs to happen is people stop being taken in by bad faith arguments about “free spe…
"Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser told federal law enforcement to stand down just one day before a mob of Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, smashing windows, entering the chambers, and forcing lawmakers and congressional staff inside into lockdown.
“To be clear, the District of Columbia is not requesting other federal law enforcement personnel and discourages any additional deployment without immediate notification to, and consultation with, MPD if such plans are underway,” Bowser wrote in a letter to acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, and Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy.
According to Bowser, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department in coordination with the U.S. Park Police, Capitol Police, and Secret Sevice were well-equipped to handle whatever problems could come up during the Trump rallies planned for Wednesday.
“The District of Columbia Government has not requested personnel from any other federal law enforcement agencies,” she continued. “To avoid confusion, we ask that any request for additional assistance be coordinated using the same process and procedures.”
Bowser also explained that the presence of “unidentifiable” federal law enforcement agents in D.C. could “cause confusion” and “become a national security threat” because of the lack of distinction between them and “armed groups.” [1]
And weirdly tried to push the blame on others [2].
I'm not a conspiracy theorist but that looks really wild.
It's almost as though she wanted it to 'get out of hand'? Or why would she openly deny help?
[1] https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/06/dc-mayor-told-federal-l...
[2] https://www.nationalreview.com/news/d-c-mayor-says-capitol-n...
> Over the past 12 months, the Anti-Defamation League sent 1,000 tips to law enforcement based on tracking of social-media comments made by U.S. extremists groups leading up to Wednesday’s riot, and noted the increasing ratcheting up of violent rhetoric. The FBI didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/biden-trump-electoral-colle...
A police officer friend with 20 years of crowd control experience told me that the preparations looked criminally negligent. I believe that this was done on purpose with full knowledge that these events were likely to occur. If crowd control and security are your job, there are only two explanations: you are horrible at your job, or, you did this on purpose with bad intentions.
Yes! The police are overrun with right wingers. With competent policing, this would have been just an ordinary protest. Everyone needs to ignore the mob and look at the cops. That's where the story is.
I say let's see if any journalists have any curiosity and do some investigation, or if we instead just get a coordinated full court press of the right wing racist narrative.