General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAn interesting article concerning the Capitol windows broken during insurrection.
WASHINGTON Four major access points that Jan. 6 rioters used to break into and overtake the U.S. Capitol had something unusual in common: They were among a dozen or so ground-floor windows and glass-paned doors that had not been recently reinforced.
The majority of the Capitols 658 single-pane windows were quietly upgraded during a 2017-19 renovation of the historic building. The original wooden frames and glass were covered with a second metal frame containing bomb-resistant glass.
But planners skipped about a dozen ground-floor windows, including some located in doors, because they were deemed to be low risk in the event of implosion, largely due to their discreet or shielded location, or because the building couldnt structurally handle the load of the heavier frames.
And whether by sheer luck, real-time trial and error, or advance knowledge by rioters, several of those vulnerable windows and two glass-paned doors protected with only a thin Kevlar film added after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks became easy entry points for hundreds of Trump supporters who overran and ransacked the building on Jan. 6.
Tomconroy
(7,611 posts)Opened from the inside. I'd like to know a lot more about how that happened but haven't been able to find anything.
CrispyQ
(36,231 posts)https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000007606996/capitol-riot-trump-supporters.html
=====
8:55 - Map of the outside of the Capitol Building & where the rioters were gathering.
14:14 - Floor plan of inside of Capitol Building & then fans out to the entire grounds.
19:17 - Floor plan of Senate side of Capitol Building. Rioters have broken into the Capitol building by this point.
20:44 - Officer Goodman lures the rioters away from an unguarded door & into a line of fellow officers.
21:33 - Layout of the Rotunda & Crypt & House side of the Capitol Building.
22:22 - A copy of the tweet Trump sent out at 2:24pm as the Capitol Building was being stormed by angry MAGA.
22:50 - Rioters breach the other side of the Capitol Building & look for House chambers.
27:16 - Ashli Babbitt arrives at the place where she will be shot.
28:20 - Ashli Babbitt is shot trying to breach the House chamber.
29:49 - Map of outside Capitol Building & where the crowd is. Continues into stunning footage of how the police were overwhelmed, & calls for backup were ignored.
33:00 - "Law respecting" trumpers beating police as they storm the Capitol Building.
34:06 - Trumpers trample one of their own, after she collapses & her friend's cries for help are ignored.
34:55 - Map of the Capitol Building & an overview of all the places it was breached. If you don't watch any other part of this report, watch this. It shows the scope of the breach.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)tblue37
(64,982 posts)lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Sogo
(4,967 posts)to the Trumpsters certainly could have been the ones to leave an entrance open or inform insurrectionists which windows were vulnerable....
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)tanyev
(42,362 posts)to know that kind of detail than a fairly new legislator. But Im sure the aforementioned legislators were involved in plenty of other ways.
dalton99a
(81,076 posts)Arkansas Granny
(31,484 posts)that were conducted in the days leading up to the insurrection.
IronLionZion
(45,262 posts)The law and order types always claim punishment is a deterrent.
True Blue American
(17,972 posts)Champp
(2,114 posts)Some skanky, dark-minded traitor to America guided the treasonous Republican mob directly to the vulnerable places.
Lock 'em up.
Slammer
(714 posts)I doubt the members of Congress or their staff paid enough attention during the renovation to take note of which windows were upgraded and which weren't. (I know you aren't supposed to be able to tell the difference from the outside but I don't know if you can tell the difference from the inside.)
On the other hand, someone had to do the actual renovations and would definitely have noticed which places were upgraded and which weren't.
I know they're federal contractors. But we've seen news reports in the past about federal contractors who were big MAGA fans.
It's not too difficult to believe that someone at the construction firm either looked it up in the company records, or just remembered, then blabbed to the insurrectionists during their planning.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)We have to look at all possibilities. Members, staff, contractors, and (a few) Capitol Police are all potential suspects at this point.
Action_Patrol
(845 posts)The windows dont look any different at first glance. Those rabid idiots were everywhere that day. I dont believe they targeted any specific window.
Same with the doors. None of the doors are opened from the outside, they are all electronic locks
Slammer
(714 posts)Thanks, that's what I figured.
When we had shatterproof glass installed, you couldn't tell it from real glass and the frames weren't much different.
And I figured the government probably spent a lot more and had access to better materials than I did.
Irish_Dem
(45,654 posts)Perhaps someone with military training.
Irish_Dem
(45,654 posts)This was all planned in advance.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Irish_Dem
(45,654 posts)I wonder when people noticed the buttons missing.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)It's been way too long. I sure as hell hope they've been preserved.
Irish_Dem
(45,654 posts)And where are the videos, good point.
Slammer
(714 posts)Yeah, that's one really bizarre aspect of the case.
I really don't see why those offices weren't sealed and treated like a crime scene. Fingerprints are pretty delicate but can stay on some surfaces for years if the surface is protected from the elements and isn't cleaned.
Sounds like the panic buttons were hidden, maybe behind a panel or under a desk.
Whoever removed them probably did so during the Christmas break and likely had to touch the surrounding surfaces at some point in order to remove the equipment.
The sane thing to do would have been to try to lift prints in the area around the button, compare those prints to the office personnel, then run any anomalous prints through criminal databases, any contractor databases which might exist and against insurrectionists who'd been picked up.
And someone had to sign the workmen into the building and go around an unlock each individual office as the contractor was going from office to office removing the panic buttons then lock the off ices behind them.
There should be a record of signing in the workmen and a note of who was their escort. And even if the escort is entirely innocent, he probably still has useful testimony to give about the person who was doing the removal: height, weight, name, whether he seemed nervous, what he was wearing, whether he seemed competent, the excuse/explanation he gave for doing the work, who signed the work order, who assigned him to escort the workers around the building, how long he was in the building (to compare to log-in/log-out sheets), what other parts of the building he accessed, whether he observed the guy at all times to make sure he wasn't doing unauthorized work like planting microphones, bugging phone lines, or messing with the office computers.
You could probably get a lot of information if you offered the escort complete immunity and gave him every opportunity to nail someone else to the wall.
Irish_Dem
(45,654 posts)Around the issue of the panic button removal.
It would not have necessarily been an escorted work order project.
Someone could have gained entry and done it off the books.
We know that there was recon going on prior to 1/6.
Someone scouted out the window and door situation.
Also the insurrectionists had maps of the building.
They also knew the location of the secret offices some MOC use when they need privacy.
Nancy Pelosi's daughter stated that she had grown up in the building and had no idea where these
offices were located. She questioned how the insurrectionists knew about them.
Champp
(2,114 posts)Irish_Dem
(45,654 posts)Indicates premeditation of serious crimes.
stopdiggin
(11,095 posts)(and perhaps one other reported 'non-functioning'-) - but the larger point is this does not appear to be something that was wide spread or systematically targeted against Democratic officeholders - or in fact any officeholders when it comes right down to it.
(there are plenty of legitimate question marks surrounding the attack - and pre-attack - out there. this just doesn't seem to meet that standard.)
Irish_Dem
(45,654 posts)stopdiggin
(11,095 posts)a single office doesn't really support the idea. Sounds more like a garden variety screw up.
Vinca
(50,172 posts)There's no way a random terrorist would know about the windows. It's a real shame the characters doing the breaking weren't arrested on site at the time and searched. I bet there would be maps that would tell the story and those maps might have had fingerprints.