(9 Jun 2021) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4329848
An internal government investigation found the decision to forcibly clear racial justice protesters from Lafayette Park last summer was not influenced by then-President Donald Trump's plan to stage a Bible-toting photo opportunity at that spot.
The report released Wednesday by the Interior Department's inspector general concludes that the protesters were cleared by U.S. Park Police last June 1 so that a contractor could get started installing new fencing.
The demonstrators were protesting the death of George Floyd, who died after a then-Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck and pinned him to the ground for about 9 1/2 minutes.
A half-hour after the Washington protesters were forced from the area with pepper pellets and flash-bangs, Trump walked across Lafayette Park amid the lingering scent of pepper spray and delivered a short speech while holding a Bible in front of St. John's Church.
Ashraf Khalil, a Washington DC reporter for the Associated Press, said clashes between police and racial justice protestors escalated in the days leading up to incident, and a night-time curfew from Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Trump's own promise to create a 'multi-agency response' to the demonstrations only added fuel to the fire.
"That multi-agency response definitely plays into the conclusions of the report, which documents a lot of inter-agency confusion, saying the park police and the Secret Service didn't use the same radio channel," Khalil said.
"And a bunch of people from the Bureau of Prisons arrived late and didn't get the full briefing and therefore didn't follow the plans. So (the report) really, really leans heavily on the fog of war."
The report documents Trump's attorney general, William Barr, encouraging commanders shortly before the push to clear the protesters because of Trump, but being dismissed.
"It's a fascinating little vignette in the middle of this report," Khalil said.
"It quotes an unnamed park police commander recounting a back and forth with Attorney General William Barr at 6:10 p.m., about 15 minutes before the push happened, about an hour before Trump crossed the park to the stages photo opportunity, with Barr asking Park police: 'Are these guys going to still be here when the president comes out?' And commanders on the scene kind of dismissing him and then going on with their plan."
The report tries to explain one of the main points of lingering contention: who used tear gas and when? It concludes that members of the city's police department, who were stationed down the block, used CS gas near the corner of 17th and H Street.
Much of the criticism of the clearing, and the accusations of political influence, stem from the decision to move in before the 7 p.m. curfew that Bowser had set.
The push surprised protesters and was criticized as unnecessarily confrontational after two nights of clashes and property damage.
The report concludes that Park Police commanders viewed the curfew as irrelevant.
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