Deployment of National Guard during The Capitol Riot

I just think the potential outcome should have been much more anticipated by local law enforcement.

Article:
Jan. 5, 2021, 12:20 AM EST
By Phil Helsel
The National Guard has been mobilized to Washington ahead of pro-Trump demonstrations planned this week as Congress convenes to certify the election results.

The Guard will be used to help control crowds and manage traffic, the police chief said. Mayor Muriel Bowser requested the Guard be activated and urged residents and others to stay safe and be cautious.

"We're asking D.C. residents and people who live in the region to avoid confrontations with anybody who's looking for a fight," Bowser said. "And the best way to do that is to avoid the area."



Article:
The Pentagon has approved a request by the mayor of Washington D.C. to activate 340 members of the D.C. National Guard to assist law enforcement ahead of Wednesday's planned demonstrations scheduled for when Congress is expected to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The unarmed guardsmen will work in shifts to help man traffic control checkpoints in the city's downtown area to free up D.C. police officers who could be needed to respond should the protests turn violent.

Local and federal law enforcement authorities are expecting thousands of demonstrators to converge on the nation's capital on Wednesday to protest the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's victory. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has urged local residents to avoid the downtown area out of concern that far-right supporters of President Donald Trump may act out violently.
 
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and some others involved in the law enforcement response yesterday just gave a briefing. I found it very instructive as to why the law enforcement response happened as it did; and the Q&A section was particularly illuminating.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOZ7Zog5Rj4


From Mayor Bowser's initial statement:
DC Mayor 1.jpg
QUESTION: Do you wish you had got more federal support earlier on?

BOWSER: [..] We have a nearly 4000 person police department, and we are responsible for policing non-federal properties in the District of Columbia. [..] The Capitol, the White House, and other federal installations in the District have their own police departments, the United States Capitol Police. And we cannot decide for the Capitol, the members of Congress, that we are going to be their police department.
But we stand ready to assist them in any case. And that's why we have so much regional planning, for big events, for demonstrations, for protests that turn riotous like this one, for the inauguration, for the 4th of July, you name it. We have a regional cooperation on system and planning. Now as we planned with all of our partners for this event on January 6th, I made the decision that I needed MPD to focus on law enforcement activities, and being able to respond to any hotspots, and that's why we needed our National Guard, the D.C. National Guard, to help us maintain a perimeter around our areas of concern. The Capitol police and the leadership at the Capitol, they did not make the decision to call in on Guard support. I cannot order the army, the National Guard, on Capitol Grounds; I can in the District, with the approval of the secretary of the army.
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That's the traffic control deployment that Deirdre cited.

QUESTION: What can you tell us about the intelligence that you had leading up to yesterday, and was there any intelligence that suggested that there would be an attempted breach of the US Capitol?

ROBERT J. CONTEE III (Acting Chief, MPD): There was no intelligence that suggested there would be a breach of the US Capitol. The intelligence leading up to that -- we won't talk specifically about the intelligence we had, but we anticipated certainly that there would be an increased number of people into our city in comparison to the previous two demonstrations, we certainly knew that.

RYAN D. MCCARTHY (Secretary of the Army): With respect to the posture leading in, we receive our intelligence from law enforcement agencies, whether they're federal or local. There was the going-in-position that it would be somewhat similar to November 14th, December 12th, where the types of groups that were there, but had no, in the wildest imagination, that you could end up breaching the Capitol grounds.
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They also mentioned that there is to be a 7-foot unscalable barrier put in place around the Capitol for 30 days. The State of Emergency declared by the Mayor has been extended to 15 days (Press release).
 

Source: https://imgur.com/gallery/uyxmws7

A serious investigation needs to be done on DC and Capitol Police, their response (or lack there of) and what was ordered.

There was no crowd control equipment in sight. No riot gear equipped teams, no large cans of pepper spray, no tear gas, no 40mm or bean bag guns and many cops didn't even have batons on them.

This was an abject failure and led to one of the most poignant moments of how messed up our country currently is.
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Article:
Kim Dine, who was the chief of the Capitol Police from 2012 to 2016, told The Washington Post that he was surprised that the Capitol Police allowed demonstrators on the steps of the Capitol. He said he was also mystified that few rioters were arrested on the spot.

Larry Schaefer, who worked for the Capitol Police for more than 30 years, told ProPublica something similar: "We have a planned, known demonstration that has a propensity for violence in the past and threats to carry weapons — why would you not prepare yourself as we have done in the past?"

The French police official detailed multiple lapses they believe were systematic:
  1. Large crowds of protesters needed to be managed far earlier by the police, who instead controlled a scene at the first demonstration Trump addressed, then ignored the crowd as it streamed toward the Capitol.
  2. "It should have been surrounded, managed, and directed immediately, and that pressure never released."
  3. Because the crowd was not managed and directed, the official said, the protesters were able to congregate unimpeded around the Capitol, where the next major failure took place.
  4. "It is unthinkable there was not a strong police cordon on the outskirts of the complex. Fences and barricades are useless without strong police enforcement. This is when you start making arrests, targeting key people that appear violent, anyone who attacks an officer, anyone who breaches the barricade. You have to show that crossing the line will fail and end in arrest."
  5. "I cannot believe the failure to establish a proper cordon was a mistake. These are very skilled police officials, but they are federal, and that means they ultimately report to the president. This needs to be investigated."
  6. "When the crowd reached the steps of the building, the situation was over. The police are there to protect the building from terrorist attacks and crime, not a battalion of infantry. That had to be managed from hundreds of meters away unless the police were willing to completely open fire, and I can respect why they were not."

The police are obviously busy right now; and they'll want to complete an investigation before they make any public statements, so we might have to wait a while to hear the other side of this story.
 

DONALD J. TRUMP: I immediately deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders.
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Article:
“I was actually on the phone with Leader Hoyer, who was pleading with us to send the guard,” Hogan said. “He was yelling across the room to Schumer and they were back and forth saying we do have the authorization, and I’m saying, ‘I’m telling you we do not have the authorization.’ ”

Hogan said Maj. Gen. Timothy Gowen, the adjutant general of the Maryland National Guard, was repeatedly rebuffed by the Pentagon. “The general . . . kept running it up the flagpole, and we don’t have authorization,” he said.

Ninety minutes later, Hogan said, he received a call “out of the blue, not from the secretary of defense, not through what would be normal channels,” but from McCarthy, who asked if the Maryland guardsmen could “come as soon as possible.”

“It was like, yeah, we’re waiting, we’re ready,” said Hogan, who had already sent 200 State Police troopers at Bowser’s request.
 
Article:
At approximately 9:30 p.m. this evening (January 7, 2021), United States Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick passed away due to injuries sustained while on-duty.

Officer Sicknick was responding to the riots on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol and was injured while physically engaging with protesters. He returned to his division office and collapsed. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. The death of Officer Sicknick will be investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch, the USCP, and our federal partners.
 

Source: https://twitter.com/erinmcunningham/status/1347413096965545987


Article:
The Army official — who was speaking on behalf of the secretary of the Army, who was de facto commanding the D.C. Guard but was not on the call — said the “optics” of soldiers inside the Capitol building was not something they wanted, the two District officials said.

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) confirmed that account in an interview with The Washington Post, saying Capitol Police “made it perfectly clear that they needed extraordinary help, including the National Guard. There was some concern from the Army of what it would look like to have armed military personnel on the grounds of the Capitol.” One concern was whether the Army had been invited by Congress.

A U.S. defense official said the Army general on the call didn’t formally deny the request but rather reinforced the negative optics of having uniformed personnel inside the Capitol, a point on which Bowser had agreed, and later checked with the chain of command. The defense official said Bowser agreed that if further support was necessary, D.C. police would provide it inside the Capitol, and the Guard would backfill D.C. police positions away from the building.


Pretty ridiculous that Optics were a consideration when the VP and members of the Congress and Senate were huddled in gas masks as a mob of people, quite possible some of them armed, were rampaging unchecked through the building.

Trump trying to take credit for any kind of rapid response is going to backfire.
 
The police are obviously busy right now; and they'll want to complete an investigation before they make any public statements, so we might have to wait a while to hear the other side of this story.
Heads are rolling (metaphorically).
Article:
The head of the U.S. Capitol Police will resign, effective next week, after Wednesday’s violent riot.

Calls for Chief Steven Sund’s resignation grew throughout the day as officials criticized the response to supporters of President Donald Trump storming and occupying the Capitol for hours, halting the effort by Congress to affirm the electoral vote count.

His resignation is effective Jan. 16. It was confirmed to The Associated Press by a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly.
[..]
More than 90 people have been arrested so far, with more arrests likely.
[..]
Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said the police force “responded valiantly” to the rioters who entered the House and Senate chambers and roamed the Capitol freely for several hours, ransacking offices and delaying the counting of Electoral College votes that sealed Biden’s victory over Trump.

Sund said Thursday that police had planned for a free speech demonstration and did not expect the violent attack. He said it was unlike anything he’d experienced in his 30 years in law enforcement.
[..]
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for Sund’s resignation, while House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving, another key security official, had already submitted his resignation. Incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he’ll fire the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger.

Later Thursday afternoon, the head of the Capitol Police union also called on Sund to resign, saying the riot “should never have happened.” Gus Papathanasiou said in a statement that a lack of planning led to officers being exposed to violent protesters storming the Capitol and that officers lacked the backup and equipment needed to control rioters.

Police have been criticized for not immediately arresting many people who stormed the Capitol. Papathanasiou said, “Once the breach of the Capitol building was inevitable, we prioritized lives over property, leading people to safety.”
 
Pretty ridiculous that Optics were a consideration when the VP and members of the Congress and Senate were huddled in gas masks as a mob of people, quite possible some of them armed, were rampaging unchecked through the building.

the VP and members of Congress are no more important technically then every other American citizen. Don't get me wrong i am pro- the army putting a stop quickly to any violence that rises to the level of terrorism in America, but many Americans have issues with the Army doing police work.

gas masks?
 
gas masks?

Source: https://twitter.com/RepAlexMooney/status/1346907840586412032


To explain the term "escape hood", here's the product information for a similar product:
Article:

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It's debatable whether you need to prepare for a violent march on Congress when the President of the US holds a rally 30 minutes away.

what isnt debatable is that they need to figure out protocols before this happens again. for example installing multiple barriers within the Capitol et al that can be used. like bullet proof, smash proof glass for one. im shocked it wasnt already in the Capitol, even private citizens can afford that!
 
what isnt debatable is that they need to figure out protocols before this happens again. for example installing multiple barriers within the Capitol et al that can be used. like bullet proof, smash proof glass for one. im shocked it wasnt already in the Capitol, even private citizens can afford that!
Yeah, and blocking doors with furniture. As others have said, like with 9/11 this is a "failure of imagination." It's like nobody ever thought to ask, "suppose 5,000 people marched on the Capitol from on the many large protests we have here, and hundreds of them got inside, what would happen?"

I think they obviously had some plans, like evacuating the members to a safe location (the basement), but they clearly need more unbreakable doors and windows. Multiple layers of them, internal and external perimeters.

Obviously this will happen in the future.
 
Well, Congress is a historic building, and it's never been threatened like that since 1812. So it comes down to how much of a risk of armed insurrection the US was thought to have: these crowd control barriers would have little effect against a solitary suicide bomber.
 
i wouldnt define these guys on the 6th as "armed". and the threat is still big enough. antifa didnt always have weapons, some people they just used their fists and feet.
Lots of solid sticks with flags attached.
hockey stick.jpg
Hockey stick.


Taser.

And I haven't even looked hard.

My point is, though, that with proper crowd control, do you really need security barriers *inside the building* against an unarmed mob?
 
the VP and members of Congress are no more important technically then every other American citizen.

Source: https://twitter.com/jimbourg/status/1347559078831284227

I heard at least 3 different rioters at the Capitol say that they hoped to find Vice President Mike Pence and execute him by hanging him from a Capitol Hill tree as a traitor. It was a common line being repeated. Many more were just talking about how the VP should be executed.
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Source: https://twitter.com/jimbourg/status/1347559078831284227

I heard at least 3 different rioters at the Capitol say that they hoped to find Vice President Mike Pence and execute him by hanging him from a Capitol Hill tree as a traitor. It was a common line being repeated. Many more were just talking about how the VP should be executed.
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what does that have to do with my statement?

and why should i listen to random people on the internet? i'm sure i could find tweets that say the opposite.
 
My point is, though, that with proper crowd control, do you really need security barriers *inside the building* against an unarmed mob?
Well yes, you'd want to control where that mob could get to. They were inside the building while the lawmakers were still in session.

And you don't know who is armed.
 
Article:
07dc-capitol-jumbo.jpg
Inside the House chamber, lawmakers, staff aides and journalists were told that tear gas had been deployed and to grab an emergency hood from under his or her chair. Credit: Andrew Harnik/Associated Press

[..]

I dashed to grab my laptop and plunged with a handful of reporters down three floors, where a lone officer held back a pair of doors leading to the Capitol Visitor Center, built after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as an underground fortress of sorts. It, too, had been breached.

The whole article is chilling.
 
Article:
What special security features were built into the Capitol Visitor Center?
Improving the security of the Congress, the Capitol, and visitors was one of the fundamental goals driving the construction of the Capitol Visitor Center.
The fatal shootings of two U.S. Capitol Police officers in July 1998 and the events of September 11 underscored the degree to which the Capitol and its occupants are at risk. Therefore, Congress directed the Architect of the Capitol to design and construct a visitor center to "provide greater security for all persons working in or visiting the United States Capitol and to provide a more convenient place in which to learn of the work of Congress."
The Visitor Center provides a secure public environment to welcome and manage millions of visitors and to protect the Capitol Building, its occupants, and guests.

It feels like this was designed with the idea of screening visitors better than was possible at the traditional entrances. I'd be surprised if its designers thought of a threat like this coming at it from the Capitol side.
 
Article:
We knew we had to finish that night. It was never a question of if—it was how. That’s part of my job. I can’t really get into this, but we have alternatives to the House chamber, if we need them.

This reinforces my impression that this was an intelligence failure, not a security failure.
They probably could have held the session underground if they'd anticipated the riot.
 
Pretty ridiculous that Optics were a consideration when the VP and members of the Congress and Senate were huddled in gas masks as a mob of people, quite possible some of them armed, were rampaging unchecked through the building
Considering the public (Global) backlash that was directed at the Police public order teams a few months ago during riots, they were probably concerned about a similar issue of escalation.

Not a good time to be in charge of a special unit over there atm I wouldn't think, with all the 'defund police' types looking for any excuse.
 
Considering the public (Global) backlash that was directed at the Police public order teams a few months ago during riots, they were probably concerned about a similar issue of escalation.

Not a good time to be in charge of a special unit over there atm I wouldn't think, with all the 'defund police' types looking for any excuse.

The conversation is about the National Guard (ie. Army), not Swat or mob-control police units. There was public backlash (from the left) big time about the National Guard being used to help with the riots also, but they certainly wouldnt consider NG sent in the Capitol building as bad. In fact they say it isnt fair the NG wasnt pre set up.

And.. that police response was unfair (which is true kinda, i meant hey were different situations and timing but still...)

Article:
Activists Who Protested at the Capitol in the Past Slam Light Police Treatment of the Pro-Trump Mob


[...]
 
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the “optics” of soldiers inside the Capitol building was not something they wanted,
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Soldiers go to war, police apprehend criminals.
If you defend the Capitol with soldiers, you are sending the message that this is a civil war.
If you send police, you are sending the message that the rioters are criminals and terrorists.
That's what "optics" means.

It's ingrained in my country that the military can't be used to do police work. (In the US, nobody suggests using any forces other than the National Guard for this, so it's somewhat similar.) That's being done to set ourselves apart from repressive states, where the government is supported by the military and not by the people. You want to avoid the "optics" of a military-supported government in a democracy, because that's what dictatorships look like.
 
the “optics” of soldiers inside the Capitol building was not something they wanted,
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Soldiers go to war, police apprehend criminals.
If you defend the Capitol with soldiers, you are sending the message that this is a civil war.
If you send police, you are sending the message that the rioters are criminals and terrorists.
That's what "optics" means.

It's ingrained in my country that the military can't be used to do police work. (In the US, nobody suggests using any forces other than the National Guard for this, so it's somewhat similar.) That's being done to set ourselves apart from repressive states, where the government is supported by the military and not by the people. You want to avoid the "optics" of a military-supported government in a democracy, because that's what dictatorships look like.
Using the military in a police role is against the Posse Commetatus Act. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act?wprov=sfla1
The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385, original at 20 Stat. 152) signed on June 18, 1878, by President Rutherford B. Hayes which limits the powers of the federal government in the use of federal military personnel to enforce domestic policies within the United States.
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Using the military in a police role is against the Posse Commetatus Act. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act?wprov=sfla1
The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385, original at 20 Stat. 152) signed on June 18, 1878, by President Rutherford B. Hayes which limits the powers of the federal government in the use of federal military personnel to enforce domestic policies within the United States.
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Thank you!
The Act does not prevent the Army National Guard or the Air National Guard under state authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within its home state or in an adjacent state if invited by that state's governor.
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Washington D.C. does not have a governor, but it has a National Guard, so different rules apply.
One set of troops, the District of Columbia National Guard, has historically operated as the equivalent of a state militia (under Title 32 of the United States Code) not subject to Posse Comitatus Act restrictions, even though it is a federal entity under the command of the President and the Secretary of the Army.
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Very good writeup about the difficulties of getting the National guard on the scene. I recommend reading the full article, but here are some highlights:
https://www.inquirer.com/politics/n...-house-senate-sergeants-at-arms-20210111.html
Just before noon Wednesday, [ Capitol Police Chief ] Sund was monitoring Trump’s speech to the crowd on the Ellipse when he was called away. There were reports of two pipe bombs near the Capitol grounds.
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Sund said he now suspects that the pipe bombs were an intentional effort to draw officers away from the Capitol perimeter.
The first wave of protesters arrived at the Capitol about 12:40 p.m.
“As soon as they hit the fence line, the fight was on,” Sund said. “Violent confrontations from the start. They came with riot helmets, gas masks, shields, pepper spray, fireworks, climbing gear — climbing gear! — explosives, metal pipes, baseball bats. I have never seen anything like it in 30 years of events in Washington.”
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Sund immediately called [acting Chief of the Metropolitan Police] Contee, who sent 100 officers to the scene, with some arriving within 10 minutes. But at 1:09 p.m., Sund said he called [Congressional Sergeants-at-Arms] Irving and Stenger, telling them it was time to call in the Guard. He wanted an emergency declaration. Both men said they would “run it up the chain” and get back to him, he said.
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Irving called back with formal approval at 2:10 p.m. By then, plainclothes Capitol Police agents were barricading the door to the Speaker’s Lobby just off the House chamber to keep the marauders from charging in.
Sund finally had approval to call the National Guard. But that would prove to be just the beginning of a bureaucratic nightmare to get soldiers on the scene.
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At 2:26 p.m., Sund said, he joined a conference call to the Pentagon to plead for additional backup.
“I am making an urgent, urgent immediate request for National Guard assistance,” Sund recalled saying. “I have got to get boots on the ground.”
On the call were several officials from the D.C. government, as well as officials from the Pentagon. The D.C. contingent was flabbergasted to hear a top Army official say he could not recommend that his boss, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, approve the request.
“I don’t like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background,” the official said, according to Sund and others on the call.
Again and again, Sund said, “The situation is dire,” recalled John Falcicchio, the chief of staff for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat.
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According to a timeline the Defense Department published Friday, Miller verbally authorized the activation of the entire D.C. Guard at 3:04 p.m. It would take two more hours for most of the citizen soldiers to leave their jobs and homes, and pick up gear from the D.C. Armory.
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Sund, who was officially replaced as chief Sunday, said he is left feeling that America’s bastions of democracy need far more security. He said the violent crowd that mobbed the Capitol was unlike anything he has ever seen.
“They were extremely dangerous and they were extremely prepared. I have a hard time calling this a demonstration,” he said.
“I’m a firm supporter of First Amendment. This was none of that,” he added. “This was criminal riotous activity.”
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The article in my previous post states, "An army of 8,000 pro-Trump demonstrators streamed down Pennsylvania Avenue after hearing Trump speak near the White House." I have just looked, but I couldn't source any numbers for how many people attended the rally and how many people then marched to the Capitol.
Article:
Gates for the march opened at 7 a.m. Wednesday and President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday that he will speak at 11 a.m. on the Ellipse.
[..]
A final permit was amended for the Women for America First rally on Wednesday on the Ellipse. The amendment changes the organizer's projected attendance from 5,000 to 30,000 people.

Trump actually spoke around noon, an hour later than anticipated.

There's a certain element of surprise when you've planned for 5000 peaceful protesters in the park and end up with a riotous mob of 8000 at the doors of the Capitol.
 
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Article:
The Army is working to determine which National Guard troops assisting the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration require additional security checks, and is also offering more training on threat detection for those Guardsmen arriving to Washington, D.C., in the coming days, according to the service.
[..]

The threat is something the military has faced before. During this summer’s unrest, an Ohio National Guard member was removed from his unit’s mission to D.C. after the FBI uncovered information indicating they expressed white supremacist ideology online.

The Pentagon requires all service members to take annual training on how they should identify and report suspected extremist behavior, but some of those ideologies have proven persistent in the ranks.
 
not quite in the threads realm but post WH riot the claim is Military turns backs to Joe Biden's inauguration motorcade. The vid prolly needs some analysis & verification


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQUPHo7lyK0


Many Soldiers with their back turned as Biden drives by on inauguration day. Jan 20th. 2021 To be fair, I posted a short cnn clip as well and most of the soldiers were facing the motorcade.
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