As we sat watching the insurrection on television on January 6, 2021, my revulsion at the rioters was matched by my disgust at the weak law enforcement response. Later, I joined many others in praising some Capitol police officers for their bravery and heroism.
Since the January 6 hearings and the release of the final report with little, if any, mention of the problematic nature of the law enforcement actions, I have returned to my reaction on the day of the insurrection. I was appalled at the relative lack of force used by the Capitol Police. With their over 2,000 member force, they failed to stop a mob from storming the halls of Congress.
A survey of 315 Capitol Police officers in 2022 found many “felt discouraged or hesitant to use force” during the riot at the Capitol. Their hesitancy was because they feared being disciplined if they used force—a problematic but telling belief. In addition, more than half of the officers surveyed said that guidance and intelligence shared with them before and during the attack was “not at all clear” or “not provided.”
On the other hand, the U.S. Capitol Police had specific intelligence that supporters of President Donald Trump planned an armed invasion of the Capitol at least two weeks before the January 6 riot, according to findings of a bipartisan Senate investigation released in the Spring of 2021.
It is time to focus again on the policing failure and to dismiss the prevailing explanation, “It was an intelligence failure.” It was not an intelligence failure. It was a law enforcement failure because much was known about the potential for violence on January 6. 2021.
Law enforcement officials were warned in the days, weeks, and months before the January 6 attack that Trump’s rhetoric could result in violence and specifically that a clash was possible on January 6 after Trump tweeted on December 19, 2020, that the “Stop the Steal” rally planned for January 6 in Washington “will be wild.”
Before January 6, the FBI, Secret Service, U.S. Capitol Police, D.C. government, and other law enforcement agencies gathered substantial evidence suggesting the risk of violence at the Capitol during the joint session, according to Representative Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla.,
It was a lack of communication of this intelligence. In her opening statement on June 15, 2021, at the hearing of the House Oversight Committee, Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney made the following statement:
“In the weeks before January 6, online forums erupted with threats of violence against lawmakers and the Capitol. One FBI field office warned that violent extremists were preparing for “war.” Yet the FBI failed to use all of its tools to warn of the looming assault. It did not use or issue a formal intelligence bulletin about the threat, and it did not pass on key intelligence to the leaders of the Capitol Police.”
So, it was not a failure of intelligence. It was a failure to use it. Why was that? Chairwoman Maloney suggested one reason by her questioning in the June 15, 2021, hearing. The Department of Defense and the Department of Justice may have been slow to act because of the spoken or implied wishes of then-President Donald Trump.
The Capitol Police had plenty of information about the looming threat. However, they placed as much emphasis on the expected counter-protesters as on the insurrectionists.
Law enforcement did not treat the Capitol rioters as a threat, perhaps because they identified with them racially, politically, or both. Race was evident, as this was a far cry from the treatment of Black Lives Matter George Floyd protesters in 2020.
The Capitol Police Chief said “several” officers were suspended, and more than a dozen others were under investigation for their part in the insurrection. A few of the Capitol Police Officers shook hands with the rioters. And some in the FBI were also supportive of the insurrectionists. The following is from a memo from an FBI official to a higher-level FBI manager:
“There’s no good way to say it, so I’ll just be direct: from my first-hand and second-hand information from conversations since January 6, there is, at best, a sizable percentage of the employee population that felt sympathetic to the group that stormed the Capitol, and said it was no different from BLM [Black Lives Matter] protests of last summer. However, several lamented that this violent activity is getting more attention because of “political correctness.”
Race has a way of showing up in many significant events.