Inside the fight for the Capitol: US Capitol Police officers recount being unpre…

When officers finally secured helmets that Wednesday morning following roll call, they weren’t given direction for use or storage. The helmets are heavy, and it wasn’t clear they’d need them for the morning’s protest. Some put them in their lockers, others kept them near their fixed posts.

New details, provided by five US Capitol Police officers who spoke to CNN, provide a deeper look at how department leadership left its officers unprepared and how the police force charged with protecting Congress was overrun, leading to the most successful assault on the Capitol in more than 200 years.

The officers who spoke to CNN felt betrayed by leadership. They spoke about the day’s events, their feelings and observations, on condition of anonymity, citing fear of losing their jobs and a retributive command staff. Minority officers were hit with racial slurs by people attacking the building.

And before the fight was over, officers were forced to shout that they were police to law enforcement responding to rescue the building after it was lost. They weren’t put in a position to arrest the attackers, to defend themselves, or defend the Capitol. They weren’t put in a position to succeed.

The US Capitol Police handle dozens of protests and demonstrations and events each year. They’re as common “as stoplights in big cities,” one officer said. They know how to plan, staff and work these events. They’ve handled mass arrest situations and they’ve kept the Capitol complex secure even after protesters crossed their lines — such as when more than 70 people were arrested inside two Senate buildings during the first day of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“There was no planning. No pre-planning. I just don’t understand. For the life of me, why not have the same precautions as we did with other demonstrations?” one officer said. “Our management was completely … nobody knew what the hell to do. Nobody was giving direction on what to do.”

“I feel betrayed,” another officer said. “They didn’t even put us in a position to be successful.”

Steven Sund, the US Capitol Police chief, resigned after the assault. The sergeants at arms for the House and Senate resigned after Sund. They account for two of the three-member board that oversees US Capitol Police. The third, the Capitol Architect, is not involved in tactical decisions and has not been ensnared by the scandal.

A retired general will lead an investigation into the security failures, Pelosi announced last week. What happened that day is now the subject of congressional and federal criminal investigations.

A spokeswoman for US Capitol Police didn’t respond to CNN’s request for comment. Neither did the president of the labor union representing US Capitol Police officers.

Preparing for the day’s events

Officers knew of a protest, and they knew the President was speaking. They were not in an elevated posture of readiness and wore standard duty uniforms.

But the all-hands…

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