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An internal investigation found that the decision to forcibly evict racial justice protesters from an area outside the White House last summer was not affected by then-President Donald Trump’s plan to organize a photo opportunity there.
An internal government investigation determined that the decision to forcibly evict racial justice protesters from an area in front of the White House last summer was not affected by then-President Donald Trump’s plan to launch a Bible photo opportunity in that spot.
The report released by the Interior Ministry’s inspector general on Wednesday concluded that US park police acquitted protesters last June 1 so that the contractor could begin installing a new fence.
Demonstrators were protesting the death of George Floyd, who died after a then-Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck and hung him on the ground for about 9 and a half minutes. Half an hour after protesters in Washington were forced to leave the area with peppercorns and bangs, Trump walked through Lafayette Park amid the scent of pepper spray and gave a short speech while holding a Bible in front of St. John’s Church.
In a statement accompanying the report, Inspector General Mark Lee Greenblatt said Park police officials had already planned to clear the area and “began implementing the operational plan several hours before they became aware of a possible presidential visit to the park.”
The report documents Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, who encouraged leaders shortly before lobbying to evacuate Trump protesters, but they were fired.
In a striking exchange, the report lists the testimony of an unnamed Park Police Operations Commander: “The attorney general asked him, ‘Are these people still here when the POTUS (President of the United States) comes out?'” The USPP operations chief told us he didn’t know until then that the president was going out of the White House to Lafayette Park. He said he replied to the attorney general, “Are you kidding me?” Then he hung his head and walked away. Then the attorney general left Lafayette Park.
The report determined that the decision to clear the demonstrators was justified, but that law enforcement agencies present at the scene failed to communicate effectively with each other and failed to deliver warnings to protesters about the impending crackdown. Several different law enforcement agencies moved ahead of schedule and began dealing with the protesters before the protesters were adequately warned.
The confrontation and photography of the church capped several days of escalating tension and rampant violence. Nights of protests over Floyd’s death led to sporadic acts of vandalism in the downtown area. Trump declared Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser unable to keep the peace and called in his security response.
The report details how a unit from the Bureau of Prisons arrived at the scene late on June 1, did not receive a full briefing and used pepper pellets on protesters “contrary to the instructions of the USPP incident commander.”
The conclusions, which deny any political influence on the decisions and point to the fog of war confounding any errors, are likely to be dismissed as insufficient by critics of last summer’s crackdown.
Lafayette Park, Washington’s link in the wave of national racial justice protests last summer, is under the authority of the Park Police; This agency is under the Ministry of Interior.
The new report focuses on the Park Police’s decision-making process and its complex interactions with various law enforcement entities, including the Secret Service and the Metropolitan Police Department.
He notes that “the USPP and the Secret Service did not use a common radio channel to communicate” and specifies that “weaknesses in communication and coordination may have contributed to confusion during the operation.”
Much of the clearing’s criticism, and accusations of political influence, stem from the decision to move before the 7 p.m. curfew set by Bowser. This batch surprised the protesters and was criticized as an unnecessary confrontation after two nights of clashes and property destruction.
The report concludes that Park police chiefs deemed the curfew irrelevant. It quoted the incident commander as saying: “We were not imposing a curfew for the mayor. We are a federal entity. We do not work directly with the mayor.”
She continues that the leaders at the site “did not believe that the protesters would comply with the curfew order issued by the mayor on 1 June or that waiting would necessarily reduce disturbances.”
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