Who exactly decided how much police presence would be at the rally and protecting the Capitol on January 6th?

The Capitol Police (USCP) made their own decisions. Despite employing 1,879 sworn officers as of September 2020, a congressional inquiry forced USCP to admit that on January 6th, only 195 officers were deployed to interior or exterior posts at the U.S. Capitol and 276 more were assigned to the Department’s seven civil disturbance unit platoons.

Vice President Mike Pence, not former President Donald Trump, who called for the military to defend the U.S. Capitol during the riot.

Mr. Trump “placed no call to any element of the U.S. government to instruct that the Capitol be defended,” Ms. Cheney said.

She said Mr. Trump did not call his Secretary of Defense on Jan. 6, or speak to his Attorney General or the Department of Homeland Security.

“Trump gave no order to deploy the National Guard that day, and made no effort to work with the Department of Justice to coordinate and deploy law enforcement assets,” Ms. Cheney said. “But Mike Pence did each of those things.”

There is no record of former President Donald Trump officially authorizing 20,000 National Guard troops for the U.S. Capitol ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

There is no evidence that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denied such an authorization, and experts said she doesn’t have the authority to do so in the first place.

@zenvelo Have the DC police said why they didn’t have more officers for the rally? Was it typical to have 200 officers more or less for large protests and rallies that involve extremely emotional subject matter?

I believe we must cut those responsible for such decisions some slack. Everyone was caught flat footed, from the security units to the legislators in session. And it’s simply that the developments were unprecedented. After all, large assemblies of people are a matter of routine at the Capitol and there have been larger assemblies of angry people often in our past. The redneck riot is the first of those assemblies that I’m aware of with testosterone alone responsible for its organization and regulation. In our past, it was understood and emphasized by leaders of aggrieved participants that the upcoming demonstration would be peaceful, with the basic understanding that violence simply justifies a massive ass kicking of all participants at the behest of the government in addition to abandonment of any claim to pursuit of morally justifiable goals. In the past there were of course outliers in the crowd, and opportunists—psychopaths and others looking for an excuse to act out. The difference this time is that the assembly on the 6th was a novelty in our history. The redneck riot was more or less a convention of psychopaths, and who could be expected to be prepared for that?

@JLeslie I don’t think anyone anticipated that the President of the United States would actively incite those present to march down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol.

“We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he said.

@HP That’s why I’m curious what the typical police presence is.

@zenvelo My sister told me to stay inside January 6th, and when she said it, it didn’t sound crazy to me. I never expected people climbing up the walls of the Capitol, I was focused on the possibility of civil unrest where I live or where she lives, and that there could be uprisings within the crowd at the Capitol, but it’s not my JOB to anticipate what will happen at the Capitol. Seems like there was some intel on the matter.

Those downplaying the significance of the insurrection through bringing up other demonstrations where things “got out of hand” would prefer to ignore what it is about this one that marks it exceptional and alarming in the extreme. It speaks rather well for us that though every one of us is completely aware of the possibility of such a thing, it remained as yet completely unanticipated. The riot marks those days as over.

I’m not downplaying what happened. Moreover, if the police coverage is found to have been inadequate compared to other demonstrations (I have no idea if it was) it still has nothing to do with the criminal activity that took place, they still belong in jail. I’m not going to blame the girl for wearing a short skirt.

It was Pelosi’s job as I understand it. I also read that the responsibility is with the Capitol Police Board. I may read yet another answer/opinion before the day is over.

The Capitol Police report to the Capitol Police Board and the Oversight committees of the House for appropriations and authorizations. Much of the oversight falls to the Speaker of the House because of that. Military is not allowed to be deployed for things like this. The National Guard could be called in, but would only be called in if it was requested by Congress or the Capitol Police.

I saw the statement of Trump not ordering the National Guard and this is true. But it is also misleading. By his own account he did not do this. He did mention it to his Sect of Defense. Not as an order, just as a passing thing. There were reports that there were going to be a whole lot of people showing up and Trump made the comment that they might want to consider the National Guard. But he also said they probably had already thought of that…they know what they are doing. Apparently he was wrong on that account.

@seawulf575 Do we know if Pelosi was actually consulted? Or, did she leave it to the Capitol Police? Also, there are Capitol police, but what about the DC police?

Testimony of Capitol Chief of Police Steven A. Sund; before the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee,

Tuesday, February 23, 2021
https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Testimony-Sund-2021-02-23.pdf

“The USCP and MPD battled with the violent mob for over an hour before anyone in the group was able to breach the building. In fact, at some entrances to the Capitol, such as the lower west terrace entrance, law enforcement fought with the mob for hours to prevent them from accessing the building.

“At approximately 2:28 p.m., I learned that in order to get authorization for National Guard support, the Pentagon needed to approve the request. I was therefore asked to participate in a conference call with Dr. Chris Rodriguez, D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency; Chief Robert Contee, Metropolitan Police; General William Walker, D.C. National Guard; and Lt. General Walter Piatt, the Director of Army Staff.

“During the call I again made an urgent request for immediate National Guard support. I explained that the National Guard was needed to shore up our perimeter to help secure the Capitol. Lt. General Walter Piatt stated, “I don’t like the visual of the National Guard standing a line with the Capitol in the background. I would much rather relieve USCP officers from other posts so they can handle the protestors.”

“The first 150 members of the National Guard were not sworn in on Capitol grounds until 5:40 p.m., four and a half hours after I first requested them and three and a half hours after my request was approved by the Capitol Police Board.”

According to Sund’s testimony, no one with Capitol Police communicated directly to Speaker Pelosi until he provided a situation report on 6:25 that evening, more than six hours after rioting began.

@JLoon Thanks for the link. As I read it I realized I had heard that testimony before. What you quoted was during the event, I was interested in before the event.

This stood out to me:

On Monday, January 4, I approached the two Sergeants at Arms to request the assistance of the National Guard, as I had no authority to do so without an Emergency Declaration by the Capitol Police Board (CPB). My regular interactions with the CPB, outside of our monthly meetings regarding law enforcement matters, were conducted with the House and Senate Sergeant at Arms, the two members of the CPB who have law enforcement experience. I first spoke with the House Sergeant at Arms to request the National Guard. Mr. Irving stated that he was concerned about the “optics” of having National Guard present and didn’t feel that the intelligence supported it. He referred me to the Senate Sergeant at Arms (who is currently the Chair of the CPB) to get his thoughts on the request. I then spoke to Mr. Stenger and again requested the National Guard. Instead of approving the use of the National Guard, however, Mr. Stenger suggested I ask them how quickly we could get support if needed and to “lean forward” in case we had to request assistance on January 6.

At Mr. Stenger’s direction, I called General William Walker, commanding officer of the D.C. National Guard. I advised that I had not received CPB approval, but wanted to know how many National Guard he could provide and how fast could he provide them if they were needed on Capitol Hill on January 6. He advised that he could repurpose nearby National Guard and have them to me fairly quickly, once approved. I asked General Walker to be prepared in the event that we requested them.

Within the bold that’s where this idea of optics that some of us have questioned is reinforced.

@JLeslie Do we know if Pelosi was consulted? Nope. And I’m not sure she would have been, even though there is a large amount of responsibility laid on the House. But the better question would be what WERE they doing? There were plenty of warnings up front that many people would be showing up. As always, because it was Trump supporters, it was couched as potentially violent radicals targeting Congress. But all the warnings were ignored. Imagine if they had been and extra support had been brought in? Think the protesters would have gained access to the Capitol building? Probably since some of the cops were letting them in, but you know what I mean. Instead the warnings went unheeded and no extra precautions were put into place.

So someone there dropped the ball. Either the Capitol Police ignored all the warnings because they are incompetent or they ignored them on purpose. Either they told Congress in an effort to get appropriations for back up or they didn’t. And if they told Congress then it is likely that Pelosi knew ahead of time.

^^It doesn’t sound like all of the warnings were ignored if you read @JLoon’s link. It does sound like it could have been done better, but I don’t know if they could have predicted the amount of people who would breech the Capitol. Idiot protestors joined in with the people who truly came with a goal to harm Mike Pence and steal documents, which was a large number of people to begin with. At that point those protestors became part of the riot, because the police need to worry about the entire crowd, which seems to be lost on some people.

Bottom line. Trump did not authorize 20,000 guard troops to be available on J6 and
Pelosi did not deny their deployment on J6?