All four Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd death
04 June, 2020MINNEAPOLIS - Prosecutors on Wednesday leveled new criminal charges against four Minneapolis police officers implicated in the death of an unarmed black man who was pinned by his neck to the street during an arrest caught on video, sparking nine days of nationwide protest and civil turmoil.
Derek Chauvin, arrested Friday on charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd, 46, was newly charged with an additional, more serious count of second-degree murder, according to court documents filed in the case.
The added charge, defined under Minnesota law as unintentionally causing another person's death in the commission of a felony offense, can carry a sentence of up to 40 years, 15 years longer than the maximum sentence for third-degree murder.
Chauvin, 44, was the white officer seen in widely circulated video footage kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd gasped for air and repeatedly groaned, "Please, I can't breathe," before growing motionless while bystanders shouted at police to let him up.
Floyd, whom police suspected of trying to pass a counterfeit bill to pay for cigarettes, was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly after the fatal encounter on May 25.
Three fellow officers dismissed from the Minneapolis police department along with Chauvin the following day were charged on Wednesday for the first time in the case - each with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and with aiding and abetting manslaughter.
Those three - Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao - have also been taken into custody. Aiding and abetting second-degree murder carries the same maximum punishment as the underlying offense - 40 years in prison.
Floyd's death has become the latest flashpoint for long-simmering rage over police brutality against African Americans, propelling the highly charged issue of racial justice to the top of the political agenda five months before the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 3.
Scenes of protesters of all races flooding the streets - mostly peaceful but sometimes accompanied by arson, looting and clashes with police - have fueled a sense of crisis but also hopes of change.
The mass public activity followed weeks of lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, which forced millions of Americans out of work and disproportionately affected minorities.
TRIAL MONTHS AWAY
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a black former U.S. congressman, has requested bail of $1 million for each of the four former officers, court documents showed.
When reached by Reuters over the phone, Lane's attorney, Earl Gray, said he had not received any information on the charges yet. Attorneys for the other officers charged in the case did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"This is a significant step forward on the road to justice, and we are gratified that this important action was brought before George Floyd's body was laid to rest," Benjamin Crump, attorney for the Floyd family, said in a statement.
At an afternoon news conference, Ellison said winning a conviction "will be hard," noting that Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, whose office filed the original charges against Chauvin, is the only prosecutor in the state to have successfully convicted a police officer for murder.
Fully investigating the case "is going to take months," he said. Protesters had demanded the case be widened to include all the officers who were present during the incident.
OUTSIDE AGITATORS
Protests erupted in Minneapolis and elsewhere the night after Floyd's death and have since spread to dozens of cities large and small across the United States.
In many cities, demonstrators defying nighttime curfews have been met by police in riot gear firing tear gas, mace and rubber bullets to disperse unruly crowds. National Guard troops have been activated in several states to assist local law enforcement.
Authorities and some protest organizers have blamed much of the lawlessness on outside agitators and criminal elements taking advantage of the situation.
The demonstrations had grown mostly peaceful by Wednesday and clashes between police and protesters more sporadic.
Republican President Donald Trump has said justice must be done in Floyd's case but also touted a hard line against violent protests, threatening to use the military to restore order.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he did not back deploying troops to patrol the country.
"The option to use active duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations. We are not in one of those situations now," he told a news briefing.
Protesters marched through downtown Washington again on Wednesday evening, chanting, "no justice, no peace," and "black lives matter." Another group gathered near the White House and Lafayette Square, where U.S. Park Police drove peaceful demonstrators from the park on Monday before Trump walked through the park to a church to hold up a Bible for cameras.
At the south Minneapolis street corner where Floyd was arrested, a crowd of hundreds stood in a vigil on Wednesday, some with their fists in the air, some weeping.
"These are baby steps," Kenneth Williams, 54, a black U.S. Navy veteran who lives nearby, said of the newly announced criminal charges in the case. "Somebody should have stepped up and done something at the scene that day."
"Cops have been getting away with this for years, but now we have cameras," he added.
REUTERS
Police precinct in flames in US protest over death of black man
29 May, 2020
MINNEAPOLIS (USA) — A police precinct in Minnesota went up in flames late Thursday (May 28) in a third day of demonstrations as the so-called Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul seethed over the shocking police killing of a handcuffed black man.
The precinct, which police had abandoned, burned after a group of protesters pushed through barriers around the building, breaking windows and chanting slogans. A much larger crowd demonstrated as the building went up in flames.
The crowd was protesting the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after Minneapolis police arrested him on Monday on suspicion of using a counterfeit banknote. Police handcuffed him and held him to the ground, with a bystander video showing a officer pressing his knee on Floyd's neck.
The videos showed Floyd saying that he couldn't breathe until he went silent and limp. He was later declared dead.
Hundreds of people had begun marching in Minneapolis in the late afternoon — many wearing masks as protection against the novel coronavirus — while in St. Paul, just to the east, police said there was ongoing looting as multiple fires were reported.
But later in the evening a large crowd demonstrated outside the city's Third Precinct.
"Shortly after 10:00 pm tonight, in the interest of the safety of our personnel, the Minneapolis Police Department evacuated the 3rd Precinct of its staff," city police said in a statement.
PROBE UNDER WAY
Officials assured angry residents that investigations into Floyd's death were underway, and warned that violence would not be tolerated.
"We know there's a lot of anger. We know there's a lot of hurt," said St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtel.
"But we can't tolerate people using this as an opportunity to commit crimes," he said.
At the request of both cities, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called up hundreds of National Guard troops and state police to help with security.
"George Floyd's death should lead to justice and systemic change, not more death and destruction," Mr Walz said.
OUTRAGE SPREADS
Floyd's family demanded the officer and three others who were present, all since fired from their jobs, face murder charges.
"You know, I want an arrest for all four of those officers tonight. A murder conviction for all four of those officers. I want the death penalty," Floyd's brother, Mr Philonise Floyd, told CNN.
"I have not slept in four days, and those officers, they're at home sleeping," he said. "I can't stand for that."
"But people are torn and hurting because they are tired of seeing black men die, constantly, over and over again."
Two African American leaders of national stature, Mr Jesse Jackson and Mr Al Sharpton, arrived in Minneapolis and urged more protests.
"We told the governor you must call murder a murder," Mr Jackson told an audience at the Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church.
"When you put... your foot down somebody's neck until they can't breathe no longer, you murdered them," he said.
Mr Sharpton said videos were all the evidence needed to arrest the police officers involved.
"We are going to make sure that this prosecution goes down," said Mr Sharpton.
CASE IS 'TOP PRIORITY'
Local and federal investigators said they were working the explosive case as fast as they could.
"The Department of Justice has made the investigation in this case a top priority," said Ms Erica MacDonald, the US federal attorney for Minnesota.
"To be clear, President (Donald) Trump, as well as Attorney General William Barr, are directly and actively monitoring the investigation in this case."
The White House said Mr Trump was "very upset" upon seeing the "egregious, appalling" video footage and demanded his staff see that the investigation was given top priority.
"He wants justice to be served," Mr Trump's press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters.
TEAR GAS AND RUBBER BULLETS
Demonstrators clashed with law enforcement, looted stores and set fires to shops and a construction site overnight Wednesday in the busy Lake Street corridor of Minneapolis, and were met with police tear gas and rubber bullets.
One person died of a gunshot wound, and police were reportedly investigating whether he was shot by a store owner.
Some stores, including Minneapolis-based Target, afterward announced they would close multiple locations, as the US Postal Service suspended service to some areas and bus services were discontinued through the weekend in parts of the city.
Floyd's killing evoked memories of riots in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 after a policeman shot dead an African American man suspected of robbery, and the case earlier the same year of New Yorker Eric Garner, who died after New York police put him in an illegal chokehold as they tried to detain him for selling cigarettes.
Sympathy protests erupted in other cities.
Several hundred people demonstrated in New York's Union Square on Thursday, leading to at least five arrests.
In Los Angeles, where there are longstanding tensions between law enforcement and black residents, protesters marched Wednesday on downtown and briefly blocked a major freeway.
Activists were planning a rally Friday in downtown Washington near the White House.
And protesters gathered in Denver, Colorado and Phoenix, Arizona Thursday evening, according to CNN.
Ms Ilhan Omar, a black Somalia native who represents Minneapolis in Congress, called for calm but said there was "extreme frustration" in the community over the incident.
"Anger really is boiling over because justice still seems out of reach," she said. AFP
Viral Photo Shows Soldiers Amassed on Steps of Lincoln Memorial After Pentagon Puts Them on Alert Over Protests
By Jacob Jarvis3 June 2020
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| Members of the D.C. National Guard line the steps of the Lincoln Memorial amid protests against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, on June 2, 2020. Win McNamee/Getty Images |
Troops lined the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as they overlooked protests in Washington D.C., highlighting increased presence at demonstrations after President Donald Trump's threats of military intervention to bring order across the nation.
Photos of the soldiers, members of the D.C. National Guard, have spread widely on social media after they were captured on Tuesday evening.
Martha Raddatz, of ABC News, shared photos from the site and wrote: "Your Lincoln Memorial this evening."Her images have been shared more than 25,000 times at time of writing.
The sight drew criticism from some, who expressed shock at the scene of military forces along the memorial.
Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) shared Raddatz's photo and wrote: "Trump would do well to heed the words etched into that memorial as Americans risk being teargassed around it: "With malice toward none; with charity for all...let us strive...to bind up the nation's wounds...to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace."
Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) wrote that he found the image "deeply troubling."
"I was born in South America in a decade of military dictatorship. Never would I have imagined that this scene could happen in America," he said.
In a further statement shared to Newsweek, Himes said: "Remember that Lincoln's hope for us is carved onto the walls of that memorial: that we should act "with malice towards none, with charity for all... to bind up the nation's wounds." Nothing about the President's actions and military displays is consistent with that hope."
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) tweeted: "I never thought I'd live to see the day when troops would be guarding the Lincoln memorial."
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) questioned whether those who viewed the image wanted Trump to remain as president.
He tweeted: "This picture at the hallowed Lincoln Memorial is what America now looks like under @realDonaldTrump . Do you really want 4 more years of this?"
There were also comments from further afield, with a member of the U.K.'s Parliament Dr. Rosena Allin-Khan sharing the photo and writing: "The Lincoln Memorial.
"In 1963, where the words 'I have a dream' were uttered by MLK, giving hope to millions living with segregation and racism.
"Last night, Trump deployed soldiers. This is America."
However, the move was defended by some, who raised the issue of the site being vandalized.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) wrote: "Americans would it find it much more than "deeply disturbing" if any of our national memorials or monuments continued to be defaced and vandalized by rioters.
Rep. Paul Gosar shared a post of the photo, which branded it disturbing, and raised the issue of Antifa activists, which the president has blamed for outbreaks of violence amid protests.
He said: "Nothing "deeply disturbing" about protecting the Lincoln Memorial from ANTIFA."
Newsweek has contacted the lawmakers mentioned above for comment.
In previous protesting, parts of the National Mall had slogans spray painted on them.
The National Mall NPS previously shared images of this on May 31 and wrote: "In the wake of last night's demonstrations, there are numerous instances of vandalism to sites around the National Mall. For generations the Mall has been our nation's premier civic gathering space for non-violent demonstrations, and we ask individuals to carry on that tradition."
Newsweek has reached out for further comment following the photos from the memorial on Tuesday.
The presence in Washington D.C. comes after the Pentagon ordered forces and bases in the area to "Force Protection Condition Charlie," as previously reported by Newsweek, a threat condition indicating targeting of military forces or terrorist action is likely.
This follows Trump's push for states to deploy the National Guard in order to stem outbreaks of violence at protests, and his move to federalize the D.C. National Guard.
He has said he will send in troops to areas facing protests, unless governors move to "dominate the streets" with the guard, a suggestion which has been pushed back against.
The demonstrations have spread across the U.S., sparked by the death of George Floyd, who died after a police officer put his knee on his neck while arresting him.
Curfews have been imposed in multiple cities in several states, amid clashes between protesters and authorities, with some having used the protests as a springboard for looting and violence.
Attorney General William Barr previously said "radical" groups had "hijacked" the protests, taking advantage of the situation for ulterior motives.
Newsweek has contacted the National Guard and the White House for comment.
This page was updated June 4 with a further quote from Rep. Jim Himes.
How Trump’s Idea for a Photo Op Led to Havoc in a Park
When the history of the Trump presidency is written, the clash with protesters that preceded President Trump’s walk across Lafayette Square may be remembered as one of its defining moments.
By Peter Baker, Maggie Haberman, Katie Rogers, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and
WASHINGTON — After a weekend of protests that led all the way to his own front yard and forced him to briefly retreat to a bunker beneath the White House, President Trump arrived in the Oval Office on Monday agitated over the television images, annoyed that anyone would think he was hiding and eager for action.
He wanted to send the military into American cities, an idea that provoked a heated, voices-raised fight among his advisers. But by the end of the day, urged on by his daughter Ivanka Trump, he came up with a more personal way of demonstrating toughness — he would march across Lafayette Square to a church damaged by fire the night before.
The only problem: A plan developed earlier in the day to expand the security perimeter around the White House had not been carried out. When Attorney General William P. Barr strode out of the White House gates for a personal inspection early Monday evening, he discovered that protesters were still on the northern edge of the square. For the president to make it to St. John’s Church, they would have to be cleared out. Mr. Barr gave the order to disperse them.
What ensued was a burst of violence unlike any seen in the shadow of the White House in generations. As he prepared for his surprise march to the church, Mr. Trump first went before cameras in the Rose Garden to declare himself “your president of law and order” but also “an ally of all peaceful protesters,” even as peaceful protesters just a block away and clergy members on the church patio were routed by smoke and flash grenades and some form of chemical spray deployed by shield-bearing riot officers and mounted police.
After a day in which he berated “weak” governors and lectured them to “dominate” the demonstrators, the president emerged from the White House, followed by a phalanx of aides and Secret Service agents as he made his way to the church, where he posed stern-faced, holding up a Bible that his daughter pulled out of her $1,540 MaxMara bag.
The resulting photographs of Mr. Trump striding purposefully across the square satisfied his long-held desire to project strength, images that members of his re-election campaign team quickly began recirculating and pinning to their Twitter home pages once he was safely back in the fortified White House.
The scene of mayhem that preceded the walk — barely 1,000 feet from the symbol of American democracy — evoked images more commonly associated with authoritarian countries, but that did not bother the president, who has long flirted with overseas strongmen and has expressed envy of their ability to dominate.
Throughout his time in office, Mr. Trump has generated concern over what critics see as his autocratic instincts, including his claims to untrammeled power to “do whatever I want,” his attacks on quasi-autonomous institutions of government like the F.B.I. or inspectors general and his efforts to discredit independent sources of information that anger him, like the news media he denounces as the “enemy of the people.”
And when the history of the Trump presidency is written, the clash at Lafayette Square may be remembered as one of its defining moments.
[Trump's "Tiananmen" Square - or as Stephen Colbert quipped: "Tiny Man Square".]
Mr. Trump and his inner circle considered it a triumph that would resonate with many middle Americans turned off by scenes of urban riots and looting that have accompanied nonviolent protests of the police killing of a subdued black man in Minneapolis.
But critics, including some fellow Republicans, were aghast at the use of force against Americans who posed no visible threat at the time, all to facilitate what they deemed a ham-handed photo opportunity featuring all white faces. Some Democratic senators used words like “fascist” and “dictator” to describe the president’s words and actions.
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, who was not consulted beforehand, said she was “outraged” over the use of one of her churches as a political backdrop to boast of squelching protests against racism. Even some White House officials privately expressed dismay that the president’s entourage had not thought to include a single person of color.
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser of Washington sharply objected on Tuesday and said the federal government had even privately broached the idea of taking over the city’s police force, which she pledged to resist. “I don’t think the military should be used in the streets of American cities against Americans,” she said, “and I definitely don’t think it should be done for a show.”
Arlington County in suburban Virginia withdrew its police from those assembled to guard the White House and other federal sites after the Lafayette Square clash. Even beforehand, Democratic governors in Virginia, New York and Delaware refused to send National Guard troops requested by the Trump administration.
The spectacle staged by the White House also left military leaders struggling to explain themselves in response to criticism from retired officers that they had allowed themselves to be used as political props. Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, put out word through military officials that they did not know in advance about the dispersal of the protesters or about the president’s planned photo op, insisting that they thought they were accompanying him to review the troops.
The police action cleared the way for the photo op, but it hardly quelled the anger in the streets. By Tuesday afternoon, demonstrators had returned to the edge of Lafayette Square — where new tall fences had been erected overnight — and shouted their discontent at the line of black-clad officers.
“Take off the riot gear, I don’t see no riot here,” they chanted.
Aides on Tuesday defended Mr. Trump’s walk to the church, given that a small fire had been set in its basement during demonstrations over the weekend. “The president very much felt when he saw those images on Sunday night — that crossed a terrible line, that goes way beyond peaceful protesting,” Kellyanne Conway, his counselor, told reporters.
But she distanced him from the decisions on how to disperse the crowd. “Clearly, the president doesn’t know how law enforcement is handling his movement,” she said.
This account of the clash is based on descriptions by reporters at the scene, interviews with dozens of protesters, White House aides, law enforcement officials, city leaders and others involved in the tense day as well as an analysis of video footage from The New York Times’s visual investigations team.
Morning at the White House
Mr. Trump was stirred up on Monday morning as he met with national security and law enforcement advisers to discuss what could be done about the street unrest. The advisers told him that he could not let the nation’s capital be overrun, that the symbolism was too important and that he had to get it under control that night.Among the ideas put on the table was invoking the Insurrection Act, a two-century-old law that would enable the president to send in active-duty military to quell disturbances over the objections of governors. The act has long been controversial. President George Bush invoked it in 1992 to respond to the Rodney King riots only at the request of California. But in the civil rights era, presidents sent in troops to enforce desegregation over the resistance of racist governors.
Its use is so charged that President George W. Bush hesitated to invoke it to respond to Hurricane Katrina for fear of looking like he was overriding local and state leaders.
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Vice President Mike Pence favored the idea, reasoning that it would allow quicker action than calling up National Guard units, and he was backed by Mr. Esper. But Mr. Barr and General Milley warned against it. The attorney general cited concerns about states’ rights, while General Milley assured the president that he had enough force already in the nation’s capital to secure the city and expressed worry about putting active-duty soldiers in such a role.
Several officials came away with different impressions of where Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, stood on the issue, but the discussion grew increasingly heated as voices were raised and tensions escalated.
The president rhapsodized about the crackdown in Minneapolis once the National Guard moved in. “It’s a beautiful thing to watch,” he said. “It just can’t be any better. There’s no experiment needed. You don’t have to do tests.”
Midday Planning
Mr. Barr was concerned about demonstrations near the White House over the weekend that had resulted in a small basement fire at St. John’s and graffiti on the Treasury Department headquarters, so he resolved to push the security perimeter farther from the mansion.
Reinforcements were summoned. Just before noon, an alert went out to every Washington-area agent with Homeland Security Investigations, a division of ICE, telling them to prepare to assist with any demonstration, according to an email labeled with a “high” severity. The F.B.I. deployed its elite hostage rescue team, highly armed and trained agents more accustomed to arresting dangerous suspects than dealing with riots. And ICE deployed its “special response teams” to protect agency facilities and be on call for more.
But others were reluctant to help. Mr. Trump was so aggressive on the call with governors that when Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia received a request to send up to 5,000 of his state’s National Guard troops, he grew concerned. His staff contacted Ms. Bowser’s office and discovered that the mayor had not even been notified of the request. At that point, Mr. Northam turned the White House down. Similarly, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York called off buses of National Guard troops that were to head to Washington.
By midafternoon on Monday, protesters had gathered again on H Street at the north side of Lafayette Square, this time peacefully. The Rev. Gini Gerbasi, the rector of St. John’s Church in Georgetown and a former assistant rector at St. John’s, arrived around 4 p.m. with cases of water for the demonstrators. Joining her on the church patio were about 20 clergy members who passed out snacks.
Next to them on the patio, a group affiliated with Black Lives Matter mixed water and soap in squeeze bottles as emergency eye wash if protesters were tear-gassed by the police.
While there were occasionally some aggressive encounters with the police, Ms. Gerbasi said, it was largely calm. “There were a few tense moments,” she said. “But it was peaceful.”
Inside the White House nearby, Mr. Trump was coming up with his plan to walk to the church. Several administration officials said it was his own idea; two officials said that during a senior staff meeting on Tuesday, Mr. Meadows credited the president’s daughter. It was crafted during an Oval Office meeting the day before that included Ms. Trump; Mr. Meadows; Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser; and Hope Hicks, another top adviser.
At some point, Anthony Ornato, a Secret Service veteran who serves as deputy chief of staff for operations, was brought in to coordinate the logistics of the visit. Ms. Hicks came up with the visuals for how it would look. But officials privately conceded that little thought was given to what Mr. Trump would do once he actually got to the church. There was some discussion of going inside, but it was boarded up.
The president and his team decided he would first make a statement in the Rose Garden in which he would express sympathy for the family of George Floyd, the black man who died in Minneapolis when a police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes, but then he would take a strong stance in favor of reclaiming the streets. He would threaten to invoke the Insurrection Act if governors and mayors did not do a better job of security. Reporters were told a statement would be coming, but the march to the church was kept a secret.
Mr. Barr made a trip out of the White House and into Lafayette Square only to find that the plan to expand the security perimeter had not been carried out. He ordered the law enforcement officers on the ground to complete the expansion, which would mean dispersing protesters, but there was not enough time to do so before the president’s planned statement.
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Before the Clash
Shortly after, two members of the Secret Service counterassault team appeared on the roof of the West Wing with guns and binoculars, peering north toward Lafayette Square. While snipers are stationed on the main roof of the White House from time to time, they are not usually deployed on top of the West Wing, and the sight was jarring for regulars at the building.
The White House press corps was summoned to the Rose Garden at 6:03 p.m. Outside the gates and across Lafayette Square, some of the officers in riot gear kneeled down and some protesters initially thought they were expressing solidarity as the police have done in other cities, but in fact they were putting on their gas masks.
Some form of chemical agent was fired at protesters, flash bang grenades went off and mounted police moved toward the crowds. “People were dropping to the ground” at the sound of bangs and pops that sounded like gunfire, Ms. Gerbasi said. “We started seeing and smelling tear gas, and people were running at us.”
By 6:30 p.m., she said, “Suddenly the police were on the patio of St. John’s Church in a line, literally pushing and shoving people off of the patio.”
Julia Dominick, a seminarian with the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Va., and a former emergency room nurse, was tending to a hurt protester when a police line advanced.
“There was not a warning,” she said. “I’ve never been in a war. I’ve never been shot at. I’ve never been afraid in that way. Those sounds and the gas, it will be with me.” (No police agency acknowledged using tear gas, but reporters and protesters on the scene said there was clearly a chemical irritant of some kind.)
At 6:43 p.m., Mr. Trump made his statement in the Rose Garden, finishing seven minutes later, and then headed back through the White House to emerge on the north side and walk out the gates and into the park. Mr. Barr, Mr. Esper, General Milley, Mr. Meadows, Ms. Trump, Mr. Kushner and others followed him, but Mr. Pence and his staff hung back as the building emptied and watched on television instead.
The president’s movement surprised nearly everyone, as he intended, including law enforcement. The Washington police chief said he was notified only moments beforehand. Park Police commanders on the scene were as surprised as everyone else to see the president in the park.
When he reached St. John’s, Mr. Trump made no pretense of any intent other than posing for photographs — he held up the Bible carried by his daughter, then gathered a few top advisers next to him in a line. He made no formal remarks and then, having accomplished his purpose, headed back to the White House, passing in front of a wall with new graffiti saying, “Fuck Trump.”
The police and other forces pursued demonstrators around the capital the rest of the evening, with military helicopters even swooping low overhead in what were called shows of force. Mr. Barr and General Milley at different points roamed the streets.
By Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump boasted of success. “D.C. had no problems last night,” he wrote on Twitter. “Many arrests. Great job done by all. Overwhelming force. Domination. Likewise, Minneapolis was great (thank you President Trump!).”
By Tuesday afternoon, the crowds were back and even bigger.
[Another video to bookend this presentation. Twelve minutes of powerful commentary and perspective.
]
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