It wasn't an "intelligence failure" that left Capitol Police unprepared -- it was racism.

[Ford_Prefect]

Congress and the MSM bury the story again!

It seems BLM protesters are far more threatening that an armed white lynch mob.

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Why didn't Capitol Police leaders take the threat seriously? The answer is obvious, but media won't say so
By DAN FROOMKIN FEBRUARY 24, 2021 12:00AM (UTC)

Steven Sund, the disgraced former chief of the U.S. Capitol Police Department, was explicitly warned in a Jan. 3 memo from his own intelligence unit that thousands of desperate, violence-prone Trump supporters were planning to target Congress on Jan. 6, encouraged by the president himself.

The memo didn't really say much more than was already obvious to anyone paying attention, but it was authoritative, detailed and, of course, prescient.Sund waved it off. He didn't bother to share it with the rank and file. He didn't equip his frontline officers with tear gas, or other non-lethal crowd-control weapons, or riot gear. Instead, he sent them out in street uniforms to man barricades made of bike racks, and get the shit beaten out of them. One officer died, and many others were injured. He let the Capitol fall to a mob.

But in his first public comments on Tuesday, Sund had the breathtaking gall to blame the breach of the Capitol not on his own poor decision-making, but on a "clear lack of accurate and complete intelligence across several federal agencies."

And the pathetic, credulous, ill-informed senators to whom he was testifying lapped it up. They focused relentlessly on one minor data point — a Feb. 5 report from the FBI's Norfolk field office, which described a single thread from a message board that called for war and included a map of the Capitol's tunnels.

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But take a few moments to read this one "redacted" excerpt from the internal Jan. 3 memo that the Post made public. Sund's excuses fall apart. (The public really needs to see the full, unredacted memo, by the way.)

Due to the tense political environment following the 2020 election, the threat of disruptive actions or violence cannot be ruled out. Supporters of the current president see January 6, 2021, as the last opportunity to overturn the results of the presidential election. This sense of desperation and disappointment may lead to more of an incentive to become violent. Unlike previous post-election protests, the targets of the pro-Trump supporters are not necessarily the counter-protesters as they were previously, but rather Congress itself is the target on the 6th. As outlined above, there has been a worrisome call for protesters to come to these events armed and there is the possibility that protesters may be inclined to become violent. Further, unlike the events on November 14, 2020, and December 12, 2020, there are several more protests scheduled on January 6, 2021, and the majority of them will be on Capitol grounds. The two protests expected to [be] the largest of the day — the Women for American First protest on the Ellipse and the Stop the Steal protest in Areas 8 and 9 — may draw thousands of participants and both have been promoted by President Trump himself. The Stop the Steal protest in particular does not have a permit, but several high profile speakers, including Members of Congress are expected to speak at the event. This combined with Stop the Steal's propensity to attract white supremacists, militia members, and others who actively promote violence, may lead to significantly dangerous situations for law enforcement and the general public alike.

Imagine reading that memo and failing to put your own officers on red alert; failing to prepare them to repel what seemed like an inevitable onslaught.

https://www.salon.com/2021/02/23/it-wasnt-an-intelligence-failure-that-left-capitol-police-unprepared--it-was-racism/

[The Magistrate]

1. I Agree Completely, Sir

'Blinded by the White', so to speak.

I would add that there is little reason to doubt officers would have used their firearms against a crowd mostly comprised of black people who were engaged in similar violence.

Let alone how the Capitol police are accustomed to dealing with non-violent protesters sitting in at legislators' offices, or in the hallways obstructing passage.

[Ford_Prefect]

2. The Propublica article has details of 19 interviewed officers who confirm there was institutional

interference in distributing Intelligence about the expected 20,000 strong MAGA crowd.

https://www.propublica.org/article/i-dont-trust-the-people-above-me-riot-squad-cops-open-up-about-disastrous-response-to-capitol-insurrection

As the day drew nearer, the chatter became more tense. Twitter and Facebook were abuzz with hotel rooms filling up, and Trump supporters were pouring into Washington, announcing their plans to initiate a “civil war” or “revolution.” On a well-trafficked pro-Trump forum, one of the most popular posts from Jan. 5 said Congress “has a choice to make tomorrow”: certify Trump’s victory, or “get lynched by patriots.”

Officers, particularly the younger ones, spent shifts glued to their phones, forwarding ominous posts to their sergeants.

Similar warnings reached the Capitol Police’s intelligence division. ProPublica obtained a previously unreported 17-page Capitol Police operational plan that showed select officials were notified of “numerous social media posts” encouraging protesters to arrive armed.

The document, which is dated Jan. 5, also states that white supremacists and the Proud Boys were expected to attend the rally, along with “other extremist groups,” including antifa, the left-wing movement that has clashed with far-right groups and drawn the ire of some Republicans. The plan called for “counter-sniper teams” on the Capitol dome and officers monitoring for concealed weapons, but did not discuss a potential breach of the Capitol.

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ProPublica also obtained four daily reports from the department’s intelligence division that were shared widely among commanders of the force, spanning the dates Jan. 4 through Jan. 7. The documents make no mention of expected extremist groups or the possibility that demonstrators would be armed. Instead, they note simply that “folks could organize a demonstration on USCP grounds.”

The intelligence reports provide a kind of threat scale that gauges the likelihood of arrests. The Jan. 6 rally was scored as “improbable,” meaning it had a 20% to 45% chance of resulting in arrests. Two small anti-Trump counterdemonstrations organized by local left-wing and antifascist groups were assigned the same risk level.

[crickets]

3. I can't even get through this in one sitting without taking a break to calm down.

The deliberate lack of support and planning leaps off the page. Sund and both Sgts at Arms should be locked up.