Fortunately, a lot of those insurrectionists were just along for the ride. It was a mindless mob with no real strategy or technique. Their numbers were enough that they could plow through barricades and trample officers, but they didn't have a goal. Sure, there were some people there who did have specific goals to accomplish, and those people used the mob to their advantage, but as a whole, it was just a LOT of people trying to get into someplace they shouldn't be.
Had each of them been armed with a single plan of action, we might be in a pretty scary place right now.
A police officer is just as human as any of the other people there. It only takes one person on staff to be "sympathetic to the cause" and hope that if they won he would have been a hero to their side.
The whole point of their insurrection was to change the rules that he would then be enforcing. So it's pretty understandable that he would be ok with breaking the current rules if he would then be pardoned on the other side of the transition had they succeeded.
I agree, it annoys me that people act like this was a 9/11 scale attack on our government.
Was it bad? Yes. Do I disagree with their motivations and actions? Yes. Do I think they actually planned to actually overthrow anything? No. As shitty as it was it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Imagine if even 1/10 of them had planned to bring/use rifles, molotovs etc.
If they wanted to throw down they would have, but they didn't, and I'm thankful for that. Same goes for the Capitol Police.
Their laughable incompetence and chaotic organization doesn’t change their intentions to stop the legitimate certification of the election. This was absolutely a massive attack on our Democratic system of governance. The fact that it was attempted by disorganized idiots doesn’t change that fact.