https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/14/i-saw-provocateurs-at-the-capitol-r**t-on-j***6/This article is purely my eyewitness account from notes taken the evening of J*** 6 and morning of Jan. 7. They are not tainted by any news or information from outside sources, so they do not contain many details that are public.
he deadly r**t at the U.S. Capitol bore the markings of an organized operation planned well in advance of the J*** 6 joint session of Congress.
J. Michael Waller
By J. Michael Waller
JANUARY 14, 2021
The deadly r**t at the U.S. Capitol bore the markings of an organized operation planned well in advance of the J*** 6 joint session of Congress.
A small number of cadre appeared to use the cover of a huge rally to stage its attack. Before it began, I saw from my vantage point on the West Front of the Capitol what appeared to be four separate cells or units:
Plainclothes militants. Militant, aggressive men in Donald Trump and MAGA gear at a front police line at the base of the temporary p**********l inaugural platform;
Agents-provocateurs. Scattered groups of men exhorting the marchers to gather closely and tightly toward the center of the outside of the Capitol building and prevent them from leaving;
F**e Trump protesters. A few young men wearing Trump or MAGA hats backwards and who did not fit in with the rest of the crowd in terms of their actions and demeanor, whom I presumed to be A****a or other l*****t agitators; and
Disciplined, uniformed column of attackers. A column of organized, disciplined men, wearing similar but not identical camouf**ge uniforms and black gear, some with helmets and GoPro cameras or wearing subdued Punisher skull patches.
All of these cells or groups stood out from the very large crowd by their behavior and overall demeanor. However, they did not all appear at the same time. Not until the very end did it appear there was a prearranged plan to storm the Capitol building, and to manipulate the unsuspecting crowd as cover and as a follow-on force.
Eyewitness Account, with No Outside Details
This article is a first-person, eyewitness account drafted the night of J*** 6 and morning of Jan. 7, so it is not affected by other news coverage or information. The only research aids used in this article were photos and videos that I took from my phone.
I have witnessed and participated in scores of protests since the 1970s when as a high school student I was trained by professional agitators from California. Apart from my professional background and experience, nothing in this article is derived from any third-party information or analysis.
In editing this for publication, I fought the temptation to add new information that I had subsequently learned from my own or from other people’s accounts. Other reports will vary and may contain contradicting information, and will contain far more facts than appear here. Many well-known actions and developments reported in the news do not appear here, as this is purely what I saw and understood between about 11:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on J*** 6.
Anti-r**t Police Prepared Early, But Presence Was Light
Originally I had planned not to attend any of the several pro-Trump events scheduled for that day. At the last minute, a companion and I decided to see what we could see. Late that morning, at about 11:30, I walked from near Union Station to the Senate side of Capitol Hill on 2nd and D Streets NW and noticed a small number of C*****l P****e dressed in full r**t gear, with shin guards and shoulder guards. One carried a black baton with side handle.
“That’s old school,” I called to the officer, giving him a thumbs-up. The police appeared to be readying to board a van or bus, although the Capitol was only 2-1/2 blocks away.
I crossed behind the Russell Senate Office Building to Constitution Avenue near the Capitol, past some out-of-towners who pointed at the Capitol and asked if it was the White House, then walked for about 25 minutes up Pennsylvania Avenue toward an empty Freedom Park.
A rally had just taken place there and moved to the Ellipse, the large lawn between the White House and Constitution Avenue NW. President Trump was speaking to a huge crowd at the Ellipse, although the Freedom Park rally had broken up to assemble at the Capitol before we arrived.
For such a massive event, police presence was light. District of Columbia police and a small group of DC National Guard had a relaxed demeanor, keeping a professional distance from marchers and other pedestrians, as they usually do. A few police and National Guard gathered around a mobile device to listen to the president make what sounded like rousing comments.
Crowd Energized and Festive, Not Angry or Incited
A while later we saw from a block away that marchers had begun down Constitution Avenue from the Ellipse to Capitol Hill, mostly along Constitution Avenue. We passed down 13th Street to join them.
Although the march was in protest of fraud in the 2020 e******n and people were recounting the president’s energizing speech, the mood of the crowd was positive and festive. Strangers stopped to talk to one another along the way, resisting but ultimately giving in to offers from street vendors hawking Trump and MAGA memorabilia, or to taking pictures of Washington landmarks.
Some along the way talked enthusiastically about President Trump joining them on Capitol Hill, as if he had said something about it in his Ellipse speech. I didn’t want to pop their balloon by saying that he undoubtedly would not. There was an expectation in the air that he would be there.
Of the thousands of people I passed or who passed me along Constitution Avenue, some were indignant and contemptuous of Congress, but not one appeared angry or incited to r**t. Many of the marchers were families with small children; many were elderly, overweight, or just plain tired or frail—traits not typically attributed to the r**t-prone.
Some said they were police officers from around the country. Many wore pro-police shirts or carried pro-police “Back the Blue” f**gs.
Diverse Cross-Section of America
Among the hundreds and hundreds of f**gs—perhaps thousands—displayed over the next few hours, I saw only two Confederate battle f**gs and one w***e s*********t sign, the latter of which some suspected aloud was a l*****t plant. The two f**gs and one sign, I thought, would feature prominently in news reports to present a false image of the crowd.
A large group of African-American men sported shirts that said “B****s for Trump.” Figuring that journalists would emphasize the solitary r****t sign and Confederate f**gs, deliberately ignoring the rest, I took note of the fact that many demonstrators were black, Asian, and Latino, with a strong presence of Vietnamese- and Chinese-Americans.
Respect for the City and Streets
The DC government had placed only one portable toilet along the 16-block Constitution Avenue route, and five more near the intersection with Pennsylvania Avenue near the Canadian Embassy. The federal government opened the Ronald Reagan Building so people could use the bathrooms.
The city had provided few trash bins. (DC usually provides a large number of toilets and trash receptacles along march routes.) Yet remarkably little litter could be seen in the streets. People crushed their plastic water bottles and food wrappers and stuffed them in their pockets, and a few marchers picked up the occasional trash along the route.
Observations about the toilets and trash are noteworthy because, in my experience with and among large protest crowds in Washington, the large l*****t crowds tend to be angry and leave trash in the streets and urine in the shrubs. None of that anger showed in the J*** 6 crowd along Constitution Avenue.
The Exceptions: Organized Cadre
Although the crowd represented a broad cross-section of Americans, mostly working-class by their appearance and manner of speech, some people stood out. A very few didn’t share the jovial, friendly, earnest demeanor of the great majority. Some obviously didn’t fit in.
Among them were younger twentysomethings wearing new Trump or MAGA hats, often with the visor in the back, showing no enthusiasm and either looking at the ground, glowering, or holding out their phones with outstretched arms to make videos of as many faces as possible in the crowd.
Some appeared awkward, the way someone’s body language inadvertently shows the world that he feel like he doesn’t fit in. A few seemed to be nursing a deep, churning rage.
They generally covered their faces with cloth masks, as opposed to the pro-Trump people, few of whom wore masks at all. They walked, often hands in pockets, in clusters of perhaps four to six with at least one of them frequently looking behind.
These outliers group looked like trouble. I presumed these f**e Trump protesters were A****a or something similar. However, that entire afternoon I saw none of them act aggressively or cause any problems. At least, not from my vantage point.
A second outlier group also stood out. While many marchers wore military camouf**ge shirts, jackets, or pants of various patterns and states of wear and in all shapes and sizes, here and there one would see people of a different type: Wiry young men in good physical condition dressed neatly in what looked like newer camouf**ge uniforms with black gear, subdued patches including Punisher skulls, and helmets.
They showed tidiness and discipline. They strode instead of walked, moving at a more rapid pace than most of the people, sometimes breaking into a short jog, and generally keeping to the left side of Constitution Avenue in pairs of two or small groups of three. Unlike others in old military clothes who tended to be affable and talkative, these sullen men seemed not to speak to anyone at all. As we would see, they were the disciplined, uniformed column of attackers.
Entering the U.S. Capitol Grounds
We walked about three blocks behind the front of the march to the Capitol, with perhaps two or three thousand people ahead of us. The DC Metropolitan police were their usual professionally detached selves, standing on curbs or at street crossings and exchanging an occasional greeting from marchers, but treating the event as routine and at the lowest threat level.
When we crossed First Street NW to enter the Capitol grounds where the C*****l P****e had jurisdiction, I noticed no police at all. Several marchers expressed surprise.
Passing by a few days earlier, I had noticed that, with p**********l inaugural platform construction underway, the Capitol’s West Front lawn had been blocked off with plastic. On this day, there was no barrier blocking the paved footpath with its high granite curbs on either side leading up the Senate side of the hill. The openness seemed like a courtesy gesture from Congress, which controls security.
But that appearance of low threat level made no sense. American f**gs flew over the Senate and House chambers, indicating that each house of Congress was in session. Vice President Mike Pence was supposed to be there to certify the e*******l v**es. For better or worse, this was a historic day in Congress. Yet no C*****l P****e appeared anywhere from what we could see, and I commented on to my companion that it was very strange for there to be no police during a joint session of Congress, with or without a gigantic crowd.
At a low point of ground, we crossed on top of what looked like a length of black aluminum fencing that had been placed flat over a wet area of mud or dead leaves in the walkway. It was the only thing out of place in what was becoming a funnel of people marching in from the broad merger of the six-lane Constitution Avenue and four-lane Pennsylvania Avenue and a Senate staff parking lot and park to the footpath. What looked like tens or even hundreds of thousands of people surged down the avenues as far as one could see.
At the West Front of the Capitol: Spirited Disorder
The marchers became denser as greater numbers of people funneled into the paved footpath going up Capitol Hill, but almost everyone seemed talkative and happy. The path was interrupted by a few steps and a handrail in the middle, going on until a second set of steps ended at a plaza at the Capitol’s crypt level.
The first thing we saw was the temporary news media tower built for cameras to t***smit the upcoming p**********l inauguration. As if at a party, some younger Trump supporters had climbed the tower and were waving American and political f**gs.
The tower stood before the painted wooden inaugural stand itself, with its VIP section above the balcony-like protrusion where Joe Biden will be sworn in as president. Windbreaks or something similar, made of metal scaffolding and covered with a façade of white cloth or plastic sheeting, rose above the north and south ends of the platform.
No police could be seen on the platform for now. No police could be seen anywhere.
People kept surging in from Constitution Avenue, and the plaza quickly filled up and overflowed onto the lawn. Everyone squeezed closer and closer together, with most in high spirits. Some trouble began up in the front, near the base of the inaugural platform itself, but we could not see what was happening.
Many of us looked on our phones for texts or Twitter messages to find out what was happening, but there was no functioning wireless service—too many people with phones in too small an area overloaded the cell phone t***smission facilities.
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