Security at the US Capitol failed during last year’s insurrection, largely because of the misconception that right-wing extremists were “friendly” with the police, Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) testified before a committee of the Chamber from January 6.
“People thought they were friendly to law enforcement and loved their country,” Bowser said in a new transcript of testimony released by the commission on Thursday, Jan. 6. “People didn’t think these white nationalists were going to overthrow the Capitol,” he added.
William Walker, head of the D.C. National Guard during the uprising, told members of the Jan. 6 committee that the response on Jan. 6 would have been “very different” and harsher if the rioters had been black. He indicated that many people in the crowd could have been killed by law enforcement, according to a transcript of his testimony released Tuesday.
“I’ve seen enough places where I probably would have used deadly force,” Walker testified. “I think there would have been more bloodshed if the line-up had been different.”
More than 100 officers of the United States Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department were injured on the day of the insurrection. Five officers died in the attack, one from a stroke and four from suicide.
Bowser also blamed the Defense Department for not responding more quickly at the Capitol as rioters overran the building.
Bowser said he spoke by phone with Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy about the escalating violence in the Capitol. “You see what I see; Your capital is obsolete,” she recalled telling him.
National and local law enforcement officials have been heavily criticized for failing to anticipate the extent of the violence that day, despite multiple telltale signs from social media posts and other online activity.
Part of the failure appeared to be a shaky view of which group of Americans was at risk for violence, Bowser indicated.
But Bowser testified that MAGA’s mostly white followers had already become increasingly aggressive with police in the December 2020 rallies and riots in DC.
“In December … we had a flurry of these white nationalist groups come in and vandalize some of our churches; Proud Boys, so-called Proud Boys and the like,” Bowser recalled. “We had a lot of antagonism and street violence.”
“It was the first time we’ve seen those groups really harass and vandalize and they’ve been very aggressive with the police,” the mayor told the House committee. “I think our experience with them in December showed us that they are against enforcement.”
About 900 defendants were arrested on charges related to the storming of the Capitol on charges that include, among other crimes, theft and damage to property, assault and seditious conspiracy.
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