Besides reaffirming the finding from the January 6th Committee’s hearings that Donald Trump planned to call for his mob to march on the Capitol (p. 19) and it was spontaneous as he claimed, a new report from the Department of Interior Inspector General concentrating on the actions of National Park Service personnel lays out a few details worth noting.
On January 6th, Park Service personnel were shown text messages by a representative for the group organizing the January 6th rally on the Elipse, Woman for America First, reportedly from a White House representative, saying Trump intended to “unexpected” urge people to march to the Capitol and the Supreme Court, where they would set up a second stage for more speeches.
Around 9 a.m. on January 6th, long before the Capitol attack, Park Police members arrested a protester who had moved a bike rack barrier by the Washington Monument. Police and Park Rangers were forced to retreat to a security area near the Monument when a crowd started menacing them. After they secured themselves in the facility, “people outside banged on the glass with flagpoles, sticks, and fists.”
Police then saw “a large crowd of 500 to 800 people entering the Lincoln Memorial wearing gas masks and carrying shields and banners,” but being aware of the threats and violence that had just occurred at the Washington Monument, NPS supervisors told the members of the “react team” sent to the site to stay back unless they saw acts of violence or vandalism, saying “it was not advisable to risk antagonizing the crowd by confronting them.” After taking photos for about 15 minutes, the group reportedly left the Memorial.
Despite Republicans saying no weapons were involved in the Republican-led domestic terrorist attack on Congress, the IG report notes officers arrested several people for carrying guns on federal grounds, including one person who had an AR-15. Other weapons taken by officers at the metal detectors or found in abandoned bags included knives, pepper spray cannisters, brass knuckles, gas masks, tasers, body armor, and batons. Because those at the things “peaceful tourists” carry with them when seeing our national monuments, right?