As many would know, on January 6th of this year, the U.S. Capitol Building was stormed by a Pro-Trump mob during the certification of the electoral votes of President-Elect Joe Biden. The mob's intention was to overturn the election results believing that Joe Biden had "stolen the election". However, it was during this time when the Capitol Police had done a poor job into stopping the Mob from storming the Capitol. Which led to many, many casualties including one Capitol Police officer.
I am not here to debate whether or not the acts were justified, I will be going over the job in which the Capitol Police had done during the storming. I will go over first what the Capitol Police had done during the storming, then I will give my opinion on it and further give questions.
It did start out as a peaceful protest as the Pro-Trump crowds moved from the front of the White House to the U.S. Capitol Building. From 12:00-1:00pm the Pro-Trump protesters would begin their transition from the White House to the Capitol. It would be around 1:00pm when the protesters at the Capitol would become rioters. The Capitol Police had not planned for an all out riot to break out, but the police had prepared just short of the 1:00pm time before the riot police were positioned. Because of the ill timed Capitol Police response to the riot beginning to storm the Capitol, the Chief of Police Steven Sund would request for the National Guard to be sent and help the dwindling numbers of the police. However, the Sergeant-at-arms of both the House of Rep. and Senate were reluctant to call them in. Which led the rioters to then breach first into Sanctuary Hall. Which the rest of the story you would know by now with all the looting of Senator's and Representative's offices and etc.
Now, I do not believe that these riots were justified by any means. Every single one of the people who decided to storm and enter that Capitol should be arrested and sent to jail. However, the Police in my opinion is not to blame for why it turned out the way it did. I believe this because of the all the protests and riots around the country that had demanded that the police should be minimized and defunded. That and the reluctance by the Sergeant-at-Arms to request the Nation Guard sooner was a terrible mistake. If anyone should've resigned from the Capitol Police, it should've been both of the Sergeant-at-arms. Some would argue there would've been more police there if it was BLM, which is wrong as well because the police would've done the same thing for them.
Do you believe that the riots were justified? why or why not?
Do you think that the Police Chief of the Capitol would've had the right idea to call in the National Guard early?
What do you think about the police response?
SOURCES
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/06/us/washington-dc-protests
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/we-will-never-concede-trump-baselessly-asserts-voter-fraud-speech-n1253011
Replies
Well written summary Garrett! Be sure to comment three times per page. You only replied once.
I believe that people have the right to protest and show their opinions, as long as they don't hurt other human beings while they do that. In my view violence is wrong and there aren't things that can excuse it. During those riots they broke into an historical building and most importantly they attacked and threatened other people, they even assaulted a cop with a fire extinguisher. So I don't think that those actions can be justified.
I don't think the people should have broken into the capitol and taken it that far, but I think the police were fine and needed the protection of the capitol. I think he did have the right to call the National Gaurd becaue they needed it with all the looting and destuction.
I think none of this was justified. The capital is a very important and historic building so people coming in and looting it is a disgrace to our country. The National Guard should have defiantly come in early to protect this building. If they did, a lot of looting would have stopped and there would have been fewer people hurt. It feels like every day this nation is falling apart and I do not want to see that, and doing all of this does not help anyone.
I think that the riots were not justified. I feel that there was no reason for the riots to happen. The citizens of our country need to stop holding destructive riots and make a choice to unite. I do think that the Police Chief would have had the right to call in the National Guard early. Perhaps if the Police Chief had called in the National Guard, maybe what happened wouldn’t have been so bad. I feel that the police did the best they could for what was going on, but looking back maybe the police should have been prepared for something like this to happen. If they had been more prepared, they may have been able to stop the riots and been successful at keeping the rioters from breaking into the Capitol.
Of course the riots were not justified. But the people of Qanon really believed that the democrats were pedofiles. And if everybody believed that than this could have been a lot worse but its a legit belief so they stormed the capital. I think the police chief probably had a good idea that something like this was going to happen and the fact that Donald trump said that his followers should protest shouldv'e definetly had some more police force there. With that the police response just wasn't good and more couldv'e been done.
For the most part, I agree when a crowd of paranoid people are encited by Donald Trump and Ruidi Juliani it does not go well together at all.
I don't think it was right they broke in and destroyed and looted the capitol. Yes he had the right to call them because thousands of angry rioters wanting to storm the capitol would need to be stopped by a lot more than just one police force. I think that the police should have took more action fireing mabye warning shots so this wouldn't have maybe happend.
First,I dont belive the riots were justified it should've been a peaceful protest and nothing but that. Based on the fact that it wasn't kept peaceful and the capital was stormed though I do feel as if there coudl've been better protection in the first place but I do belive the National Gaurd early was the right decision. Lastly, the police response really should've been quicker and there should've been more force used as this wasn't people breaking into a gas station, this is the capital!!
bump