The US Park Police did not clear racial injustice protesters from Lafayette Park to allow for then-President Donald Trump‘s march to St. John’s Church last June, but instead did so to allow a contractor to install a fence safely around the White House, according to a new inspector general report.
The Park Police had the authority to clear protesters during last summer’s clash outside the White House, according to the report released by the Interior Department’s inspector general on Wednesday.
On June 1, 2020, law enforcement officers violently cleared Lafayette Square — a park near the White House. Protesters had been occupying the park for several days following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The officers, a mix of Secret Service, U.S. Park Police officers, National Guardsmen and other federal law enforcement officers, deployed pepper spray and smoke and flash grenades to clear the protesters out of the park.