There are going to be many questions asked about the police lack of action. The police were definitely overwhelmed and appeared to be totally unprepared for what was taking place. May I suggest as few ideas. The following are my observations only.
The first idea is the jurisdictional responsibilities of each police agency. Regardless if people like it or not, there were three main police agencies involved. The first agency would have been the Washington DC police. Their jurisdiction jurisdiction would have been the streets of Washington. The second agency are the National Park Police, which are responsible for the lands around the Capital buildings and the White House as these are considered National Park areas. The third agency are the Capital Building Police themselves. Each agency appears to guard their jurisdictions with jealousy and often mistrust of each other fearing that their jurisdictions will be invaded and loss of power and authority will be the prevailing end result.
The demonstration was known for weeks due to the many intelligence reports received and announcements made on social media etc. This is where I see the break down. Each police agency appears to have not communicated with each other, let alone take the intelligence gathering seriously, believing that the demonstrators would have been met at least by one police agency. There also an appearance that the Capital Hill Police would never be involved with the protesters.
When the realization presented itself that this was more than each agency anticipated or could handle, only then were the phone calls made for help, which had to go through the proper channels and the proper people involved to give the permission needed for different agencies could be called in. It was only after this time, that agencies began to work together at the higher end of the organizational chain of command.
An interesting note: it was the vice president who gave the order to bring the National Guard into the Capital building, a responsibility that was not his to make but that of the president. When Trump refused to act upon the call, the vice president stepped in. Apparently Trump is upset and won't meet with Pence at this time.
Many people are saying if this was a black lives matter march, there would have been police and national guard all over the place three meters thick. But they fail to look at the history of the black lives matter movement compared to what was expected at what was seen as a political rally. Black lives matter have a history of rioting, burning and looting before they do their marches. Trump rallies have never, until now, been known to be violent. As far as police agencies were concerned, there was a feeling of just another protest march. That I believe is the difference between the two groups. It really has nothing to do with racism, a card that has been player over and over again to explain something they don't understand or don't want to admit. "We'll just call it racist, then there is no need to look further." That's the idea when anyone uses the race card. All other possible reasons are ignored and everyone goes on their merry way believing they have solved the questions at hand.
No matter how many times I hear the reporting, the "experts" in security etc., there is an apparent refusal to admit that each agency were working independently of each other until it was too late. In saying that, once the reality was realized it wasn't long before everything was brought under one roof of co-operation without exception.
Perhaps this is where the problem raises it's ugly head above the crowds. There are too many agencies that jealously at the top, guard their jurisdictions. Instead of an idea of working together, the creation of one police agency for the whole city without exception should be established. It would appear that the Washington Metropolitan Police service should be the umbrella police agency which would absorb the other police agencies. This would solve a lot of jurisdictional problems.
In the days to come, there will be a lot of questions asked, a lot of investigations, and a lot of finger pointing in regards to the security problems that arose from this. There may even be policies created that no matter what march was taking place every police agency would be put on alert even if it looked like overkill. Nothing taken for granted, everything on the line regardless without exception, everyone on standby all leaves canceled without exception.
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