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January 6 Finger Pointing...

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  • January 6 Finger Pointing...

    This video is lengthy (25 February), and I started making notes as to what is being said, but it appears to be an actual bipartisan "look back" at what happened. It seems to come down to "the foot soldiers did great" but the leadership screwed up bigtime.

    They KNEW there would be major trouble, but there were also major failures of command and control - no clear rules of engagement, and officers felt abandoned by leadership as things quickly fell apart.

    Some claim they had no actionable intelligence on January 5, but the same department had issued dire warnings on January 3.

    Several of the witnesses complain that they had actionable intelligence that warned of major trouble, but also assured that this would be more like the "million man march" - even though armed militia and white supremacist's would be involved, and they were monitoring social media that encouraged protesters to bring arms.

    Apparently, a claim was made that helmets were issued to officers in preparation of the anticipated riot, but very few of the officers were wearing helmets.
    Several are throwing (unintentionally, perhaps) the Sgt at Arms under the bus for not disseminating the information they had.

    Chief Pittman had claimed that the size of dignitary protection was increased --- when asked, she admits the increase was from 4 people to 6 people.
    Chief Pittman had boasted of deploying counter-intelligence agents, but admits the increase was minimal.
    Chief Sun had pressed the Sgt at Arms for more protection, but was denied.
    Chief Sun had asked for National Guard assistance, also asked Senate Sgt at Arms - and was denied prior to the 6th.

    Ranking member of Appropriations member was "in the fray" and was near "boots on the ground" and said there was absolutely no way they were getting command and control direction.
    She also refers to the shooting incident by Lt Michael Byrd, and says he had no way of knowing there was a tactical response team on the other side of the door, because there was zero communication over command radio headsets or radios. No real time coordination at all.
    Senate was evacuated, but House was not - appeared to be no plan for House to evacuate.
    Chief Pittman - "Incident Command Protocols" developed after 9-11 were "not adhered to". Because "command" failed, officers "on the ground" had to become "command and control", but they were busy trying to manage their own areas of defense.
    Capitol Police Union "no confidence" vote of Pittman was 92% not confident --- Pittman was supposedly incompetent, and is trying to "fix the problem".

    Chief Pittman - Incident Command Structure failed, but she (Pittman) claims reforms are still being implemented.
    Pittman disputes the "no confidence" vote because "not all sworn officers" voted.
    Still working on "communications", because there apparently was no communication avenue between Metro Police, Capitol Police, Sgts at Arms (both House and Senate) and there were way too few "hard turtle gear" (the tactical police) units.
    Admits there was no training for the anticipated January 6 riot.

    Don't have time to get further into this, but it sounds like pretty much everybody agrees "boots on the ground" performed admirably, but "command and control" screwed up really badly, and was mostly totally absent.

    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

  • #2
    OK, so the Capitol Police Board would have to authorize National Guard assistance, according to testimony, and the request was made prior to January 6 by the Sgt of Arms, but the Capitol Police Board denied it, citing "optics".
    According to Chief Pittman, this is required by 'statue' [sic].

    So the Chief of Capitol Police requested National Guard assistance PRIOR to Jan 6, and that needs to be voted on by the full body of the Capitol Police Board, but one member wouldn't even allow it to come before the Board for a vote.
    Last edited by Cow Poke; 09-11-2021, 04:53 PM.
    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

    Comment


    • #3
      Chief Pittman sounds absolutely incompetent to implement any assessment or improvement.
      She seems to overlook the fact that something as basic as inoperative radios, or "AWOL" command and control is a major problem, and seems to think that a budgetary increase will help.

      Some of the examples of screwups are Capitol Police Officers trying to help House members to get to safety, and other Capitol Police Officers declaring their "safe place" is off limits because of lockdown.

      Again, Clark (committee member) cites the January 3 assessment was widely distributed, including that all the way down to Lieutenants to distribute to their teams, that armed persons, militias, white supremacism groups, and that civil disorder is imminent. At the same time, other "actionable intelligence" says that civil disorder is "improbable, unlikely, not anticipated, etc...."

      So, apparently, with the two conflicting "intelligence assessments" on 3 January, 4 January, 5 January, and 6 January, the powers that be chose to believe the "improbable civil disorder" rather than the multiple reports of armed persons coming to target Congresspersons themselves, along with FBI warnings.

      FBI warned that there were multiple intercepts that "Congress needs to hear glass breaking and see blood flowing" and that there were maps in the subways showing rally points and maps of the Capitol Tunnels, and Chief Pittman acknowledged that those reports were seen by taskforce agents, but claims that "this was an information report, for informational purposes, but has not been fully evaluated and integrated with other intelligence".

      Wow.

      Chief Pittman claims the Capitol Police knew that militia groups were coming, but "we did not believe they would turn violent".
      Chief Pittman had testified that she had sent intelligence officers into the crowd, but, apparently, did not get information from them that there would be trouble.
      Clark seems absolutely amazed that such an intelligence failure could possibly happen.
      Clark seems convinced that "command and control" left the officers on the ground in perilous danger by their failure to act on available intelligence.

      Chief Pittman is now hiding behind "I'm an African-American woman, who......" (She's trying to dispel any impact of BLM on the atmosphere at the time of the January 6 riot) She's now doubling down on racial bias, institutional bias by police, training that will be given to officers on intentional and unintentional bias...

      Mark Amodei.... (sp) concerned that the US Capitol looks like a Federal Prison with razer wire, barricades, etc...
      Current Sgt at Arms talking about security hardening vs technology, etc.
      The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

      Comment


      • #4
        (I'm watching this lengthy video in pieces as time permits, so I ask forgiveness for the "multiple posts" or "back to back posts" that would normally be disallowed)

        Dan Newhouse - questioning Chief Pittman again about the FBI information that was warning that there would be violence, but it supposedly didn't go "up the chain" --- yet she's admitting that they had their own assessments of militia groups, persons being encouraged to be armed, much of the other information....

        Pittman said that she already had information about armed groups intending to riot, so the FBI documents weren't necessary to disseminate (though she previously claimed they were disseminated all the way down to Lieutenant level. She said they would not have changed the preparation the Capitol Police (didn't) make.

        Newhouse (who was on the floor of the House) says that Capitol Police officers were running down the hall banging on doors ordering people to evacuate, but never identified themselves as police. (this troubles me in that Lt Michael Byrd, who shot Babbitt, reportedly also did not identify himself as a police officer)
        It appears that the "company culture" of the Capitol Police does not include the VITAL requirement that all other police departments train to clearly identify yourself as "police".

        (If Chief Pittman says "if you will" one more time I'm gonna scream! )

        Pittman is 'circling back' to the FBI warning (probably getting off camera coaching) trying to downplay the importance of it again.

        Newhouse is dealing with the issue that Pelosi ordered metal detectors at all entries, but Pelosi herself never walks through them.
        Anybody surprised?

        Chairman Tim Ryan is returning to Chief Pittman's apparently ever-changing story about the FBI warnings, that they were disseminated, but wouldn't change anything, and they went all the way down to the Lieutenant level, but not "up the chain". Asking what Pittman's definition of a credible threat. Pittman says "a credible threat is something that can be acted on". :loloi: She is CLEARLY punching above her weight. Pittman claims, "yes, we would have acted differently, but "lessons learned"".

        Pittman acknowledges there were multiple requests for National Guard, but they were denied. Ryan is pushing "why didn't you insist"? "Why didn't you demand a full vote of the Capitol Police Board"?

        Again --- given "REALLY BAD THINGS ARE ABOUT TO HAPPEN" warnings were tossed aside in favor of "it's probably going to be more like a million man march with no civil disorder".
        The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

        Comment


        • #5
          So, being pressed further about the FBI warnings, Chief Pittman had originally said they were "widely circulated all the way down to Lieutenant".

          Jennifer Wexton presses the issue, "does 'all the way down to Lieutenant' include Lieutenants and above, or 'above lieutenants'".
          After some back and forth, Wexton points out that the Sergeants would be responsible for roll call and muster, so would they have been advised, as well?

          Pittman responds, "I'm sorry - it's Sergeants and above, not Lieutenants and above" - so way more widely distributed warnings than previously admitted.
          The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

          Comment


          • #6
            Only two options: Security at the capitol building is on the level of keystone cops, or this was intentional. If it's the latter, then it's hard to parse who exactly was in on it. It could be that Pittman, who clearly is incompetent regardless of either option, is being used as the scapegoat because of her incompetence. IOW, the high level folks who set this up, played off her incompetence. The whole "optics" excuse makes it particularly suspicious. They were supposedly worried about optics prior, but then cared nothing about optics when they clearly went overboard in the aftermath.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by seanD View Post
              Only two options: Security at the capitol building is on the level of keystone cops, or this was intentional.
              OK, so the reason I was interested in this is because we are currently interviewing a former Capitol Police officer for a position locally. He and I have become pretty good friends, and he'll probably be attending my Church.

              He tells me he's trying his best not to believe this was deliberate, but it has the same "smell" as the Baltimore riots (and elsewhere) where the police were pretty much told to "stand down". In the case of the nutty Mayor of Baltimore, she actually said they needed "space to destroy".

              If it's the latter, then it's hard to parse who exactly was in on it. It could be that Pittman, who clearly is incompetent regardless of either option, is being used as the scapegoat because of her incompetence.
              OK, some of this is kinda hard to follow, because Pittman is the acting Chief of the Capitol Police, but she was the Assistant Chief before that, and another guy was "Chief". Same with Sgt at Arms of the House - different guy, but they'll each be referred to as "Sgt at Arms". It can get confusing. So Pittman wasn't Chief at the time this happened, but she certainly was in the command structure.

              IOW, the high level folks who set this up, played off her incompetence. The whole "optics" excuse makes it particularly suspicious. They were supposedly worried about optics prior, but then cared nothing about optics when they clearly went overboard in the aftermath.
              I have a few more videos to watch -- but note that these are not "after action commentary", but actual official bipartisan hearings.

              The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

              Comment

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