I strongly disagree that there were Capitol police in “large numbers standing by doing nothing”. I have yet to see a single video showing that. What I have seen is large numbers of police desperately attempting to hold the mob back and being overcome.
The often repeated claim the police were inviting them in might apply to a 3 officers and handful of protesters, but it also ignores the reality of the situation on the ground:
There are plenty of instances where rioters waltzed into the Capitol without a fight, but only after they had stormed past barricades and, in some cases, even stepped through broken windows. In some areas, police were so outnumbered by the mob that they retreated, stood aside or tried to politely engage with rioters to de-escalate the situation rather than fighting or making arrests, but that is clearly not the same as welcoming rioters into the building.
Since we don’t have video of every single encounter between police and rioters, it’s theoretically possible that some tiny number of officers did invite rioters in. The Capitol Police announced in September that three officers were facing discipline for unspecified noncriminal “conduct unbecoming” that day, while three others were facing discipline for other policy violations.
But no evidence has publicly emerged to date of even one officer inviting a rioter into the Capitol. And even if a few isolated incidents emerge in the future, it’s clear that this was not a widespread or systemic occurrence as Trump and others suggested.
And, I will reiterate: there were somewhere around 10,000 people at Trump’s Jan 6 rally. Approximately 1000 chose to break the law, and break into Capitol. The peaceful protesters were the ones who recognized it was going far, and left. 9000 of them. The rest? They made a choice and choices that involve breaking the law have consequences.
Did that actually happen?
PEACEFULLY PETITION? How on earth can you call 140 police officers injured, some so severely they couldn’t return to work, 2.73 million dollars in damage, led to 4 direct deaths, one indirect death and 4 suicides, peacefully petitioning?
The peaceful petitioners were the 9,000 who stopped short of invasion and violence. The rest, criminals at this point…some more misquided then intentional hit with misdeamenors, others much worse. None excusable.
Have you seen the entire video record? All the eye witness testimony? The police cams? There is plenty of eyewitness testimony and video evidence from participants themselves to corroberate the narrative.