Police used tear gas and flash grenades to disperse lawful protesters, so Donald Trump could enjoy a photo op in front of St. John's Church in Washington, DC. They also fired rubber bullets.
"The WH is explicitly not denying that Trump or another admin official greenlit the tear gas attack, and there’s no clear explanation why anyone thought using tear gas on peaceful protesters was warranted just so the president could have a photo op."https://t.co/pKNyQQkrGh— Cameron Peters (@jcameronpeters) June 2, 2020
Trump was actually holding up Mein Kampf 💀 written by his lord and savior Adolf Hitler pic.twitter.com/puM20afEOX— EseLokote5099 (@EseLokote5099) June 2, 2020
[Trump] called up a group of aides, including National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, Attorney General William P. Barr, his senior aide and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, to pose with him in front of the church.
Mr. Trump walked back to the White House after a few minutes. He did not respond to shouted questions from reporters. Other aides, including Ivanka Trump and Hope Hicks, accompanied him on the walk across the park.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a New York Democrat, was quick to criticize the president in a news conference later Monday. "Calling out the American military for a photo opportunity. That's what it was. I mean, it was shameful. It was really, truly shameful."
Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump had berated America's governors over their response to the protests across the nation, calling the protesters "terrorists," demanding "retribution," and warning the governors that they will look like "jerks" if they don't order protesters arrested and imprisoned.
.@NYGovCuomo: "The protesters themselves have been making a very valid point: wake up America, we're killing people based on the color of their skin ... POTUS wants to make it a reality TV show of God & country. 'Call out the military & then I go to church & hold up a Bible.'" pic.twitter.com/czmZR2G1QU— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 1, 2020
CUOMO: "What POTUS did was he called out the American military against American citizens ... they used the American military to push back a peaceful protest ... just so he could have a photo op of walking to a church ... is that making America great? I don't think so." pic.twitter.com/pSh9Pukz2b— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 1, 2020
Trump stated this evening that the incidents of looting and violence during the demonstrations were "acts of domestic terror". (No word on whether Trump will label the white (undercover) police officers caught on video vandalizing buildings and setting fires in Minneapolis as "terrorists".)Here's the moment where police fired teargas into a crowd of peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park, just minutes before Trump's address in the Rose Garden. pic.twitter.com/KPjxMKdDyx— Cameron Peters (@jcameronpeters) June 1, 2020
Trump stated the police and National Guard will:
dominate the streets ... [showing an] overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled. ... If a city or state refuses to take the actions necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.While it didn't involve damage to anything as important as property, will the following story also count as terrorism?
Two police officers in Atlanta were fired for dragging two college students from their car and tasing them. Three additional cops were put on desk duty.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms:
Some time during the night, I saw very disturbing video of two young college students who were in downtown Atlanta yesterday evening. ... There clearly was an excessive use of force. We understand that our officers are working very long hours under an enormous amount of stress, but we also understand that the use of excessive force is never acceptable.Two women - Teniyah Pilgrom, a 20-year-old Spelman College student, and Messiah Young, a 22-year-old graduate of Morehouse College - were stopped and ordered out of their vehicle for allegedly violating the city's curfew.
"A police officer then opened the door, tased [Pilgrom] and pushed her on the ground," Spelman College President Mary Schmidt Campbell said in a statement. "She was taken into custody. Her crime? Nothing. She was not charged and, after several hours in custody, was released."
Young was also tased, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, citing WSB-TV. ...
"While we understand the need to maintain order, the abusive behavior reported to us is completely unacceptable," wrote the presidents of Spelman, Morehouse, Clark Atlanta University and the Morehouse School of Medicine in a joint statement from the Atlanta University Center Consortium. "It is clear that the behavior of law enforcement in this country must change. Incidents like the one last night and the many events of police violence (recorded and unrecorded) leading up to today heighten the urgency of this need for change. And we support our students as champions and activists on behalf of change."
The Transport Workers Union (TWU), which represents transit workers in large cities like New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, has issued a statement telling bus drivers that they can and should refuse requests from police officers to use their buses to transport arrested protesters.
The action started last Wednesday, when Adam Burch, a Minneapolis bus driver, was asked by his supervisors to transport arrested protesters from various demonstrations. Recalling his own arrest and detention on a public bus in 2016 when he protested the murder of Philando Castile, a black man shot and killed by a white cop, Burch declined and circulated a petition among his colleagues.
My co-workers last week debated volunteering for the shifts and taking the overtime pay. But I said, "Do you want to assist the police department that was involved in such a heinous murder?"Burch's union, Amalgamated Transit Union, publicly supported the petition. Ryan Timlin, president of ATU Local 1005:
Public transit should not be used for these types of things. They let a police precinct burn down, what the hell is going to protect a bus from burning down?John Samuelsen, international president of Transport Workers Union and a longtime New York labor organizer, stated that during 2011's Occupy Wall Street protests, bus drivers transporting arrested protesters were pepper-sprayed by cops.
When the cops are on a station platform and we're swinging the hammer we don't ask the cops to come down and swing the hammer with us. So we're not driving the bus for the cops to arrest protesters.The protests are growing. Last Friday, a Brooklyn bus driver also refused to transport people arrested by the NYPD.
3 comments:
Surely he should have been holding up a copy of Mein Kampf
I had a tweet with Mein Kampf photoshopped in. I wonder why it's not there.
I added it. Thanks for reminding me!
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