Letters to the Editor: These readers felt something would go wrong Jan. 6. Why didn't Capitol police?
To the editor: Former U.S. Capitol security officials testified to Congress that the intelligence they received before Jan. 6 did not warn them that the planned demonstrations would turn violent and result in an attack on the Capitol.
Yet, without benefit of intelligence reports, many average citizens like me feared there would be violence. Media reports of former President Trump's supporters hoping to stop Congress from validating the electoral college results had us plenty worried.
Why were the professionals charged with protecting Congress caught napping?
Linda Fenton, Seal Beach
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To the editor: If you believed Trump was truthful and all opposing views were "fake news," then his cries of election fraud would give you reason enough to fight with clubs and flagpoles to invade the Capitol and stop Joe Biden from becoming president.
Trump's speech on Jan. 6 before the insurrection urged immediate action to save the United States. He said, "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore," and, "We want to get this right because we're going to have somebody in there that should not be in there and our country will be destroyed."
He also said that he was going to be with protesters at the Capitol, but he broke that promise and watched the invasion on TV. He didn't go to the Capitol and say, "Stop! I called for a peaceful march."
The commander in chief did not order in any of the vast forces under his control. Instead, he watched on TV as rioters just down the street attacked the outmanned Capitol officers.
Any lesser-ranked U.S. military officer caught committing such a major dereliction of duty would have been promptly detained for a court martial.
Mark Davidson, Santa Ana
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To the editor: "The intelligence was not that there would be a coordinated assault on the Capitol, nor was that contemplated in any of the interagency discussions that I attended in the days before the attack," according to former House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving.
He has got to be kidding. I'm sitting out here in California, my only source of "intelligence" being the Los Angeles Times, and I knew something bad was going to happen and there would be inadequate security to handle it.
Right-wing extremists were converging on Washington, exhorted by Trump, his two sons and Rudy Giuliani, all of whom should be charged with sedition.
Art Peck, View Park
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
