When the Security State Stood Down Pt. 4

By: Jonathan Neves

When the security state of the United States stands down, we see the change in our country’s priorities from social democracy towards militarism and authoritarianism. It has happened multiple times in our modern history from 1941–2021. This series will cover four such instances that are notable for the effects they’ve caused and the subsequent effects to come from them.

The Capitol Riot (January 6, 2021)

Are we sick of hearing about this day yet? Has it left all meaning for you or are you attached to it like white on rice because it’s “the greatest affront to our country since 9/11?” Wherever you land, the details that have been produced and the precedents being set as a result have been enlightening and frightening for the direction of this country moving forward, but I suppose that was by design for this new age of authoritarianism as the state not only stood down but pushed this along to its ultimate culmination.

It started with a political rally held by former President Donald Trump, with all the bombastic and heightened emotional draw that the message of #StoptheSteal was emanating. For weeks, online chatter and organizing laid the plans for the rally out in the open for anyone to see. Federal authorities and the Capitol police would claim incompetency and would be unprepared for the volume of rioters to show up, however, comparisons for the response to BLM (Black Lives Matter) protests throughout the previous year were being made against this argument as whole divisions of the county, state, and federal officers would envelop any social unrest that posed a threat to the powers that be. Speaking out of both sides of his mouth, to give him just enough legal room to deny any direct involvement, the former President directs his rally to go to the capitol where Vice President Mike Pence is presiding over the certification of the results of the 2020 Presidential Election.

Livestreams from the marchers and some journalists on the ground captured the entire event as it unfolded. An online user by the name Patr10tic created a collection of video recordings attached to an interactive map of the event. You can see a lot for yourself here: https://thepatr10t.github.io/yall-Qaeda/map.html I watched my friend Jon Farino, who works freelance journalism and live-streamed for Status-Coup, film the entire day from the morning crowd, to the later infamous tunnel push. His footage would be licensed to major news outlets and used as evidence in court proceedings, but he and Status-Coup would lose their rights to their footage as one of the consequences of this day, heavy-handed censorship.

The number of capitol police that manned small crowd barricades was pathetic, with one or two officers at each crowd control gate. At 12:53 pm the crowd approached the West entrance, mostly comprised of Proud Boys, it didn’t take much for a barricade to be overturned and an officer to be surrounded only to retreat to a different position closer to the main building. The crowd wasn’t peaceful by any means, it was interesting to see people that would chant “Blue Lives Matter” start throwing whatever they could find at the officers standing in their way. Reinforcements tried to push the encroaching crowd back but were quickly overwhelmed. It didn’t take long for 20 people rushing the outer perimeter gates to turn into 100s of people, surrounding the staircase entrance, violently clashing with the paltry number of capitol police officers.

By 1:05 pm, the joint session of the House and Senate meet to certify the 2020 Electoral college results. No information is provided to the members of Congress on the situation outside the building that is increasingly getting out of control.

Pepper balls and gas grenades had the opposite effect on the growing crowd, as they turned increasingly violent against the small police line. DC Metro attempted to reinforce the Capitol Police, but they were now facing 1000s of rioters. The main riot line at the west entrance started to move as more people showed up from Trump’s speech. Rioters scaled the construction scaffolding that was being created for the inauguration and battled police inside. At the top of the side stairs next to the scaffolding, rioters approached a very small contingent of police officers that immediately gave up their position. This happened to occur in other areas of the Capitol at the same time. Police would abandon their position and willingly invite the rioters into the building and through their defensive lines.

Faced with locked doors, the rioters would not stop and began breaking through the windows entering the building at 2:13 pm. Not knowing the layout of the building, or having any direction as to where to go, the rioters aimlessly walked through the ornate hallways of the Capitol. Speaker Pelosi gets pulled away and briefed on the situation, while the rest of the House remained on the floor with regular order continuing. The live streams of the rioters, who were moving through the hallways, had them pass by police officers inside the building. No one was rushed, or attacked, or arrested. They waved at each other, they shared high-fives, rioters took selfies with the police. It was more like a glorified tour, very strange to watch from home and very different from the clashing that was happening at the capitol steps.

At the center staircase towards the Senate Chamber, officer Goodman stood in the entrance with his hand on his sidearm. The crowd was itching for blood and this lone officer, feeling threatened, started to retreat from his position up the steps, the crowd advanced on him, against his orders, as he led them away from the Senate Chamber on the 2nd floor into what seemed to be the last line of defense of police officers. At 2:36 pm, Vice President Mike Pence is pulled out of the Senate floor, followed by the remaining Senate chamber evacuating to the secure rooms within the building. Calls to the DOJ, Attorney General, and National Guard to do something, to bring more reinforcements, or to have the President make a statement to return is supporters were ignored.

That last police line that guarded the Senate Chamber was able to calm the tensions down by simply talking to individuals. Officer Keith Robishaw spoke with many rioters, including the aptly identified Q Shaman, who repeated a message of peaceful protest within the halls of the Capitol and things looked like they calmed down. It was very surreal, these halls of governance filled with people that had stormed the building. People were cheerful, jovial, laughing, and celebrating their victory. Staffers for public officials fearing for their safety remained under tables and hid in smaller offices in the hopes they wouldn’t be found. By 2:52 pm, the crowd had found another way into the Senate Chambers. Officer Robishaw now finds himself alone with the rioters on the Senate floor, he’s powerless to do anything but shout orders and hope they listen and don’t turn on him.

Another crowd inside had swarmed past the officers guarding the House Chambers. When they were met with another line, someone called out that the officers weren’t going to allow them in. That sparked the crowd to get hostile again and rush the police line. They approach a set of double doors that led to the Speakers Lobby. At 2:43 pm, the crowd begins to smash the double doors, barricaded by other objects with visibly scared representatives on the other side. The officers standing at the doors leave their posts, while the officers on the other side of the barricades, draw their sidearms. A female rioter named Ashli Babbit attempts to enter through the barricades and is hit by a single shot. She dies on the floor a few minutes later.

Unbeknownst to the officers inside the capitol, the front-line riot control officers had been met with increased hostility from the main riot. They were flanked and had to retreat to the upper mezzanine into an enclosed entrance that would be known as the Tunnel. That Tunnel is the main entrance the President makes for the inauguration address. The exhausted police stacked 6 officers deep into this tunnel while the crowd rushed in, locked arms, and began to rock back and forth in momentum to pound through the police line. They were passing all manner of objects to be used as weapons to the front line. They would rotate out “fresh red-blooded patriots” to the frontline when people were exhausted. It looked like a meat grinder; people were being crushed between each other for this stretch of confined space that mattered little to the fact that rioters were already inside. Bear mace and CS canisters lit up the tunnel, choking the limited air available. As exhausting as it looked the police finally started winning that battle and pushed the crowd out of the tunnel, but it was still brutal fighting at the entrance.

At 4:17 pm, President Trump addresses the rioters. He tells them to go home, that they need peace, that the crowd is very special but it’s time to go home. Capitol Police were finally getting reinforced from DC Metro, and Virginia State Police started pushing the rioters out of the capitol building. Tactical deployment of CS dispersed the crowds at the tunnel entrance and from the west entrances. Once the area was clear, the US Senate reconvened and finished certifying the election results. The riot delayed the process by 4 hours. 179 Republican representatives would still vote against the election certification.

The Jan 6 commission, which is still conducting its investigations today, has unearthed that the U.S. Capitol was allowed to be breached. Capitol Police testified they were ordered to stand down. Requests for the National Guard troops were ignored. Members of Congress played a heavy hand in the preparation of the riot; Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was exposed on security cameras hosting multiple identified rioters mere days before the riot happened. Senator Ted Cruz expressed his support of the marchers after speaking at the rally. Not a single member of Congress, who supported the action has faced any consequences for their support. More than 150 people have pleaded guilty to crimes committed that day. 71 have been sentenced with minimal prison time, mostly for misdemeanors. President Trump and his cabinet have not been arrested as of this writing.

“Progressive” members of Congress will use the event as theatrical displays even when they weren’t in the building. They would allow a funding bill for the Capitol Police to pass by a single vote, even though the Capitol Police stood down and gave up their positions. They would lambast the need for more censorship of online chatter that led to these events, even though the organizing information was made available weeks in advance for any law enforcement to see and prepare for. The Biden Administration would have 25,000 national guardsmen deploy and remain for 6 months in DC. Increased spending and military arming of law enforcement was increased further under Biden. The Department of National Intelligence would print literature in identifying the categories of Domestic Violent Extremists, the new phrasing would be used to identify anyone with a dissenting opinion, mobilized to action, criminalizing protest.

The day has been described as a COUP, though the military had no hand in it. An INSURRECTION, though the rioters didn’t stay or act in a cohesive manner that could pose a lasting threat to the institutions. A PSYOP, which holds more weight as multiple federal officers and intelligence agents were inside the crowd, helping with communications and strategies of the event. Ultimately, Jan 6th, or the Capitol Riot, is an EXCUSE to implement more authoritarian practices, pass laws that limit free speech, ignore the growing problems of society that lead to these actions, and control us, evermore.