Probe: Trump photo op was not to blame
An internal investigation has determined that the decision to forcibly clear racial justice protesters from an area in front of the White House last summer was not influenced by thenPresident Donald Trump’s plan to stage a 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 thenMinneapolis police officer knelt on his neck and pinned him to the ground for about 9½ minutes. A halfhour after the Washington protesters were forced from the area with pepper pellets and flashbangs, 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.
Park Police officials had already planned to clear the area and “had begun implementing the operational plan several hours before they knew of a potential Presidential visit to the park,” Inspector General Mark
Lee Greenblatt said.
The report determined that the decision to clear the protesters was justified, but that law enforcement agencies on the scene failed to effectively communicate with each other and to issue warnings to the protesters.