The world is still fixated on videos and photos from Wednesday’s attack on the U.S. Capitol. But, online, there is still some debate on if this attack was perpetrated by Trump supporters or antifa.
This was a difficult and depressing day in American history. After seeing protests and riots throughout the summer of 2020, rumors were spreading about who was actually leading them.
Mike Brooks is a retired Washington Metropolitan Police Department detective who has worked through many protests at the Capitol during his time. He spoke with some of the current law enforcement officers at the Capitol building.
“They will attest, this is not antifa, that these were right-wing nutjobs and apparently there is no indication whatsoever that antifa was involved,” said Brooks.
After a long summer of watching protests and riots across the country, many people have begun to associate tactics with different groups. While there are some similarities, it’s what investigators find after the fact.
In this case, everyone that has been arrested is a Trump supporter. It will take more time to sort it out, but the arrests that have yet to be made will hold the answers to many questions.
For now, at the Capitol, the cleanup continues where rioters trashed the building after breaching security.
An investigation into the Capitol Police force’s response has begun. Law enforcement is looking into several things but does have one specific priority. They are focused on making sure this does not happen again.
Investigators are banning out across the country and securing the internet. Arrests are made of those that entered the Capitol on Wednesday.
Law enforcement will conduct what is called an after-action report. First, they figured out what happened, then made recommendations for how to improve so this does not happen again. Even more, there’s another big event in a few days.
So before the inauguration, law enforcement will review both intelligence and operational planning. Where were the errors at the Capitol? Brooks says, there were failures on both sides.
“This was a epic, an epic failure on both sides, on the intelligence side and on the operational side,” Brooks said. “We’ve had demonstrations, civil disobedience that has gone all the way up to the steps of the capitol, but there is no way that they ever would have been allowed inside the capitol building, period.”
They’ve already begun planning for the inauguration. Expect to see a significant change in readiness over the next few days. Ensuring something like this cannot happen again.