Thread by @thisisinsider

On January 6, rioters stormed the US Capitol and tarnished American democracy.

Six months on, formal testimony, news reports, and investigations have made clear what went wrong. Missed warnings, botched plans, and poor leadership exacerbated the chaos. 👇 businessinsider.com/capitol-riot-m…

Drawing on congressional testimony, official reports, legal documents, and original interviews, Insider can tell the extent of the dysfunction and confusion that led to insurrection on US soil.

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The Capitol riot prompted one of the worst days for US law-enforcement injuries since 9/11, The New York Times reported in May.

73 Capitol Police officers and 65 officers with the DC Metropolitan Police Department were injured. One died.

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💻 An insurrection planned in the open

The violence on Jan. 6 was planned online, visible to anyone who knew where to look.

Among those watching were @ncri_io, a nonprofit that tracks disinformation, and @Bellingcat, an open-source intelligence group. businessinsider.com/capitol-riot-m…

In the aftermath, prosecutors have alleged a high degree of coordination among those they now seek to convict.

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🚩 Missed Warnings

Though the warnings never reached the right place, USCP was watching too. The department received warnings of violence in the weeks ahead of January 6, but the information wasn't put to good use.

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According to the bipartisan Senate report on Jan. 6, the USCP had three separate intelligence units, an arrangement that contributed to poor information-sharing.

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Here are a few disturbing comments made online before the riot, as mentioned in the Senate report:

🗣 Intelligence wasn't shared

Other agencies watched too. One of the most serious warnings came January 5, in a report from the FBI field office in Norfolk, Virginia.

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In a press release responding to the Senate report, USCP acknowledged failings in its handling of intelligence and said it was making changes.

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🚨 The Capitol Police weren't prepared

Come January 6, the USCP deviated from usual protocol and produced no department-wide plan for the day, the Senate report noted.

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There was such a lack of organization that leadership couldn't even tell the Senate where 797 of its 1,214 on-duty officers were during the riot.

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⏰ The National Guard took hours to respond

The Senate report sought to explain why the National Guard took so long to come. A big factor was bureaucracy: The USCP chief doesn't have authority to unilaterally request support from the National Guard.

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🇺🇸 Preventing another insurrection

Having better plans for a National Guard response is one of the recommendations from the Senate report for preventing a repeat of January 6.

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Among the other recommendations are mandatory department-wide plans from USCP for special events, merging the three intelligence units, and giving the chief power to request assistance on his own initiative.

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