re: #478 ckkatz

One thought on the slow response to the Capitol Insurrection by the National Guard Bureau and DHS components on Wednesday.

Prior to Wednesday, there had been discussion and concern that organized arms of the Federal Government might try to take over the Capitol Building and essentially decapitate Congress. When it was first announced that a battalion of the DC National Guard was to be mobilized, Mayor Bowser had carefully noted that they Guard would only be in a supporting role.

I do not know, but would suspect that a portion of the delayed Federal response was due to concerns at those agencies that the deployment might either be misused or mis-interpreted.

I also understand that units of the Metropolitan Police trying to respond to the delayed emergency calls for assistance at the Capitol were stuck in traffic jams.

Certainly, the Sergeants at Arms of the House and Senate should have coordinated this much better beforehand. And yes, they should have had all their forces on hand and better deployed for crowd control.

I can potentially buy all of that, but their inability to react to a rapidly changing situation, where evidence exists that it was planned, is a problem of a lack of critical thinking.