When U.S. Park Police forcefully pushed peaceful protesters away from the White House and Lafayette Square on June 1, they performed a “violent and senseless operation,” said Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Ariz, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, during a Congressional hearing about the incident on Monday.
Around 6:30 p.m. — a half-hour before Washington D.C.’s curfew — videos show U.S. Park Police using projectiles, batons, and gas to move protesters away from the park.
Among the hearing’s witnesses was Washington D.C. resident Kishon McDonald, who is a plaintiff in an ACLU lawsuit over the force used to move Lafayette Square protesters.
In contrast to testimony from the witnesses, House Republicans echoed the June 2 statement by the U.S. Park Police, referring to protesters as “violent” and alluding to “the destruction of public property.”
Later in the hearing Rep. TJ Cox, D-Calif., asked witness Jonathan Turley, a law professor at the George Washington University Law School, if these videos were “at all relevant to the peaceful protests going on on June 1.”
