I really wish someone would call my Dad, a retired Capitol Hill police officer (37yrs), to talk about the difference in preparation. The stories he’s telling me about prep for Farrakhan and others vs why yesterday happened the way it did is mind blowing.

cc @JoyAnnReid

He just told me about a time when Farrakhan was on the Hill with 4 men. Not 40. Not 14. FOUR. They had the SWAT Team in the garage and held the entire department until Farrakhan left.

He said if you even mentioned his name, all days off were canceled due to prep.

When Obama was elected he said they did a surprise background check on all of the police officers on the Hill. He said they had never done it since he was on the force & he was there from Nixon thru Obama.

He said they found out two officials, one Sgt and one Lt, were members of a racist motorcycle club. He said he the conditions are worse than when he was there b/c you don’t have the same voices & advocates on the force. He retired in 2009 & was the #1 senior person when he left.

He said since they got rid of the german shepherds and they got rid of the horses. He said if that was Black Lives Matter they would have called in Park Police horses for crowd control. He said there was NO crowd tools yesterday.