The lax security at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was unbelievable, according to war and protest correspondent and writer Michael Yon.
Yon, a former member of U.S. special forces who was at the Capitol protests himself, said that in the areas he was in near the Capitol, there was no real security on Jan. 6.
“There was no real security at all, really. It was like a straight shot, like Atlanta airport, with lights telling you where to land,” Yon said. “It was a clear shot to the Capitol. Where was the security on a day like this? It was unbelievable.”
Yon said that lack of security looked like an invitation to proceed to storm the Capitol.
“They had taken down the barriers, which were nothing, they were like the snow fence—you know, the plastic ones that you can unfurl—so those were nothing. I mean, literally, a child can take them down,” he said.
He said he believes the storming of the Capitol was influenced by some typical crowd control methods, though he didn’t say if the tactics were intentionally used or not.
He recounted that some people started the walk toward the Capitol building before President Donald Trump had concluded his speech.
At that point, Yon decided to take an Uber to a location 400 meters away from the Capitol.
As soon as he got out of the ride, “one guy’s already gassed. And he’s, you know, he said that he had just been tear-gassed.” He added that, according to a photo from earlier, somebody had been shot in the cheek “maybe with a pepper ball.”
“But then I saw people directing traffic,” he recounted. “‘Follow me, we’re going this way, we’re going to take our house back,’ that sort of thing.”
Yon saw a lot of people, some with megaphones, encouraging the crowds to move forward. He said that some of these people directing traffic were likely to have been agent provocateurs, explaining that it’s an old technique.
“Basically, you can take somebody else’s crowd and make it do what you want it to do. Or you can take your own crowd and make it do what you want it to do,” he explained.
A small contingent of rioters and protesters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6—the same day Congress was counting the electoral votes and confirming former Vice President Joe Biden as the president-elect—while tens of thousands of Trump supporters were gathering in Washington to call for election integrity.
But a subgroup of protesters eventually breached the building and vandalized the iconic structure, causing outrage from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and Trump supporters who decided to enter the building, was killed during a scuffle with a plainclothes U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) officer as she was tried to enter the House chamber via a broken window.
In another confrontation, USCP officer Brian Sicknick died from injuries he sustained while engaging with protesters.
Yon also said he believes that some of the protesters were likely members of the anarcho-communist group “Antifa” or a related group. He was able to spot some signs on some people’s helmets such as “ACAB,” which stands for “all cops are [expletive]”—a sign intrinsically related to Antifa but not to supporters of Trump, who are usually strong advocates for law enforcement.
The Epoch Times cannot verify the allegations independently.
Journalist Andy Ngo, an expert on Antifa, has expressed doubts that the group was behind the Capitol Hill protests.
Yon said it was “very sad that we’ve come to this” and noted that tensions in America are high.
“Hopefully, the United States will calm down soon,” he said. “Do I think that'll happen? I don’t feel like it.”
