The Capitol Insurrection, Emergency Management and Mutual Aid Agreements: What Questions Need to be Answered?

• Author: Knox, Allison G.

January 6, 2021 started with a rally and protest focused on the results of the Presidential election.(1) By the end of the day, Washington, D.C. was under curfew after rioters stormed the Capitol. Several civilians and police officers were injured--and some died as the nation and the world watched on in shock. (2) The events of that day and their disturbing implications for American democracy will be studied ad nauseum, as they must be. This extended commentary, however, focuses on the Mutual Aid Agreements, which, if had been properly activated, could have mitigated the subsequent insurrection.

"During his speech, Trump reiterated multiple falsehoods, claiming the election was rigged and that Democrats had committed voter fraud. By midday, the Capitol was buzzing as Congress convened in a joint session and pro-Trump protesters began to gather around the building's perimeter." (3) Later that day, the Capitol was broken into "forcing Congress to adjourn and take shelter." (4) The violence at the United States Capitol was nothing short of mob activity. In one instance, the assailants beat a police officer. (5) Four people lost their lives including one Capitol Police Officer, (6) Brian Sicknick. (7)

Commenting on the dire situation at the Capitol, Mark Mazzetti, Helene Cooper, Jennifer Steinhauer, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, and Luke Broadwater's article in The New York Times, "How a String of Failures Led to a Dark Day at the Capitol," provides a timeline of the Capitol siege and then pinpoints the various moments the Capitol Police mishandled. (8) At the heart of their piece is the notion that there was a coordination failure at the Capitol--and potentially a communication failure within that. (9) They do not, however, elaborate on the issues with the mutual aid agreements--standing emergency management policies focused around resource management. Several reports indicate that there was discussion of utilizing the National Guard to assist in quelling the riots at the United States Capitol, however, they are essentially conflicting reports arguing that mutual aid agreements were both requested and denied. While the article in The New York Times argues that there was a coordination issue, the coordination issue was centered on a failure of appropriately utilizing mutual aid agreements and resources ahead of time. (10) Like many other major incidents similar to the Capitol Riots on January 6, 2021, there is often an administrative failure at the heart of the incident.

Speech Sparked Violence: What Went Wrong at the Capitol

On January 6, 2021, President Trump held a rally in support of the false notion that he had actually won the election and it was stolen from him. At some point during the rally, he was quoted as saying,

Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back. It's like a boxer. And we want to be so nice. We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people. And we're going to have to fight much harder...We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong. (11) Following the speech, a group of protestors approached the Capitol and entered. Images splashed through the news media showed a couple of men in Speaker Pelosi's office, while other images showed someone walking off with a podium and people on the House Floor. (12) The Capitol Police later found pipe bombs on the Capitol Hill campus and learned about plots where members of the mob had plans to kidnap and kill members of Congress. (13) Former Capitol Police Chief Sund believes that the Capitol insurrection was part of a larger "planned and coordinated attack." (14)

The situation on Capitol Hill, starting with the comments made by the President of the United States, certainly had the characteristics of a coup d'etat and the incident was later called an insurrection. Under the United States federal level emergency management policies, the United States Capitol should have managed the situation utilizing the All-Hazards Approach, under which all emergencies and disasters are managed with the same general framework. (15) Thus, it was rather surprising that more reinforcements through mutual aid agreements did not arrive in a preemptive or...