7 ms·

Capitol Police, a department shrouded in secrecy: not subject to FOIA requests

54 points by tonyztan 6y ago

ashtonkem 6y ago
Probably should be though; they've not exactly covered themselves in glory today. Perhaps a bit of sunlight might help.
- SllX 6y ago
  Talk to Congress on that one.
  - ashtonkem 6y ago
    If I had my druthers, Congress would have a lot to answer for. But sadly not a lot of people are interested in my opinion in this area. "Why have you given the president unilateral authority to do so much" would be pretty close to the top of the list, for the record.
    - SllX 6y ago
      That would top my list actually. Second on the list is the C-SPAN cameras.
      - ashtonkem 6y ago
        I’ll add it to the list of grievances. The list is long.
- scoopertrooper 6y ago
  I fail to see how, they fought valiantly to defend congress while heavily outnumbered by an angry armed mob. The real question here is: where was the national guard or the various other law enforcement and military personnel that seemed so available during other disturbances? This act of insurrection was well telegraphed, a casual look at a site like thedonald.win would have revealed the plans for the rally and the intent of its attendees. There hundreds (and many more upvoting) of people concurrently promoted the event and outwardly said that the states, congress, and courts failed them, so they were going to pick up arms and forcefully take power. Surely, the federal government with its vast resources should have had a guy checking such a prominent website, right? I'm sure there were have darker parts of the 'Trump media'-verse with even more explicit calls to arms, if such a thing were possible.
  - bobjordan 6y ago
    Well for one, they murdered an unarmed woman today. We've heard all year from the Democrats and the mainstream media how property destruction and trespassing isn't worthy of a death sentence. So there's that.
    - scoopertrooper 6y ago
      A) It may not have been the Capitol Police, there is some speculation that it may have actually been the Secret Service > A witness described the shooting incident to WUSA-9, saying: “We had stormed into the chambers inside. And there was a young lady who rushed through the windows. A number of police and Secret Service were saying get back, get down, get out of the way. She didn’t heed the call and as we kind of raced up to grab people and pull them back, they shot her in the neck.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/video-timeline-capitol-breach/?itid=hp-top-table-main-0106 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/vid... B) While she may have been unarmed, the people that shot her could not be certain of that. Multiple firearms (including concealed ones) were confiscated from the intruders. C) She wasn't standing there passively, she was trying to jump through a door as the vanguard for the mob. https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/ks12mn/another_viewpoint_of_the_woman_who_was_shot/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/ks12mn/anot... D) Time will tell whether or not the shooting was justified, but it obviously wasn't a matter of protecting property. They were trying to protect the members of Congress, staffers, media, Vice President, and other people in their care from a violent mob. Edit: added source to support possible Secret Service involvement
      - bobjordan 6y ago
        E) She didn't have the right skin color for it to be an outrage.
    - ashtonkem 6y ago
      That was a justified shooting. With an armed and shouting crowd right there at the chambers, the consequences of rushing over the final barricade towards the men with guns were pretty predictable. I’m surprised they only shot once. In such a tense situation, I don’t believe I personally would have such restraint.
kaycebasques 6y ago
No comment on the FOIA angle. In general if I were a lawmaker I would be very shook right now. The people who are supposed to protect me are either incompetent or untrustworthy. Hindsight is 20/20 now but with more organization today could have been a major attack. My guess is that we'll see a purge followed by an increased militarization / professionalization of the force that protects lawmakers. The Secret Service is well known, yet I haven't heard of the Capitol Police until this incident. Edit: Or maybe it'll be a wakeup call for lawmakers to investigate whether they actually have the allegiance of the various law enforcement agencies that were present or absent today. At an even more general level one key institution (the presidency) has just passively (actively?) supported a major bodily threat to the most powerful people of another key institution (the lawmakers) so I imagine we'll see the full force of America's checks and balances in play now.
cosmiccatnap 6y ago
The problem is that when you ask where the police are, the answer is in the crowd with red white and blue face paint. The cops let them through the barricade because you gotta work with Jeff tomorrow and you know he's a good guy...

54 points by tonyztan 6y ago

ashtonkem 6y ago

Probably should be though; they've not exactly covered themselves in glory today. Perhaps a bit of sunlight might help.

SllX 6y ago
Talk to Congress on that one.
- ashtonkem 6y ago
  If I had my druthers, Congress would have a lot to answer for. But sadly not a lot of people are interested in my opinion in this area. "Why have you given the president unilateral authority to do so much" would be pretty close to the top of the list, for the record.
  - SllX 6y ago
    That would top my list actually. Second on the list is the C-SPAN cameras.
    - ashtonkem 6y ago
      I’ll add it to the list of grievances. The list is long.
scoopertrooper 6y ago
I fail to see how, they fought valiantly to defend congress while heavily outnumbered by an angry armed mob. The real question here is: where was the national guard or the various other law enforcement and military personnel that seemed so available during other disturbances? This act of insurrection was well telegraphed, a casual look at a site like thedonald.win would have revealed the plans for the rally and the intent of its attendees. There hundreds (and many more upvoting) of people concurrently promoted the event and outwardly said that the states, congress, and courts failed them, so they were going to pick up arms and forcefully take power. Surely, the federal government with its vast resources should have had a guy checking such a prominent website, right? I'm sure there were have darker parts of the 'Trump media'-verse with even more explicit calls to arms, if such a thing were possible.
- bobjordan 6y ago
  Well for one, they murdered an unarmed woman today. We've heard all year from the Democrats and the mainstream media how property destruction and trespassing isn't worthy of a death sentence. So there's that.
  - scoopertrooper 6y ago
    A) It may not have been the Capitol Police, there is some speculation that it may have actually been the Secret Service > A witness described the shooting incident to WUSA-9, saying: “We had stormed into the chambers inside. And there was a young lady who rushed through the windows. A number of police and Secret Service were saying get back, get down, get out of the way. She didn’t heed the call and as we kind of raced up to grab people and pull them back, they shot her in the neck.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/video-timeline-capitol-breach/?itid=hp-top-table-main-0106 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/vid... B) While she may have been unarmed, the people that shot her could not be certain of that. Multiple firearms (including concealed ones) were confiscated from the intruders. C) She wasn't standing there passively, she was trying to jump through a door as the vanguard for the mob. https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/ks12mn/another_viewpoint_of_the_woman_who_was_shot/ https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/ks12mn/anot... D) Time will tell whether or not the shooting was justified, but it obviously wasn't a matter of protecting property. They were trying to protect the members of Congress, staffers, media, Vice President, and other people in their care from a violent mob. Edit: added source to support possible Secret Service involvement
    - bobjordan 6y ago
      E) She didn't have the right skin color for it to be an outrage.
  - ashtonkem 6y ago
    That was a justified shooting. With an armed and shouting crowd right there at the chambers, the consequences of rushing over the final barricade towards the men with guns were pretty predictable. I’m surprised they only shot once. In such a tense situation, I don’t believe I personally would have such restraint.

kaycebasques 6y ago

No comment on the FOIA angle. In general if I were a lawmaker I would be very shook right now. The people who are supposed to protect me are either incompetent or untrustworthy. Hindsight is 20/20 now but with more organization today could have been a major attack. My guess is that we'll see a purge followed by an increased militarization / professionalization of the force that protects lawmakers. The Secret Service is well known, yet I haven't heard of the Capitol Police until this incident. Edit: Or maybe it'll be a wakeup call for lawmakers to investigate whether they actually have the allegiance of the various law enforcement agencies that were present or absent today. At an even more general level one key institution (the presidency) has just passively (actively?) supported a major bodily threat to the most powerful people of another key institution (the lawmakers) so I imagine we'll see the full force of America's checks and balances in play now.

cosmiccatnap 6y ago

The problem is that when you ask where the police are, the answer is in the crowd with red white and blue face paint. The cops let them through the barricade because you gotta work with Jeff tomorrow and you know he's a good guy...