The Biden administration has settled lawsuits brought by Black Lives Matter and racial justice activists over protests near the White House in 2020, agreeing to implement new policies within 30 days for policing demonstrations.
As part of the settlement, the U.S. Park Police will require officers to be better identified with badges on helmets and issue new guidelines for the use of non-lethal force and dispersal warnings.
Additionally, the Secret Service will update its policies, noting that the fact that some demonstrators engaged in unlawful conduct “does not ordinarily provide blanket grounds for use of force, crowd dispersal or declaration of unlawful assembly,” the Justice Department said in a press release.
“The federal government is committed to the highest standards for protecting civil rights and civil liberties in any federal law enforcement response to public demonstrations,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said. “These changes to agency policies for protest responses will strengthen our commitment to protecting and respecting constitutionally protected rights.”
Racial justice activists had filed federal lawsuits over Trump administration officials using tear gas to break up a protest in Lafayette Square across the street from the White House in June 2020. The activists said there was no adequate warning for the protesters.
Critics had claimed that authorities dispersed protesters so that then-President Donald Trump could walk through the area for a photo-op at a nearby church that had been burned. An inspector general report, though, found the protesters were scattered so that a contractor could erect a fence.
The American Civil Liberties Union had argued the protesters were treated with “unique violence and hostility.”
“Federal officers’ shocking and unprovoked attack against civil rights demonstrators raising their voices in front of the White House to oppose police brutality and racism was a frontal assault on the fundamental American ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and racial justice,” said Scott Michelman, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union for the District of Columbia. “We are pleased that the Biden Administration is taking an important step to protect protesters’ rights so that what happened on June 1, 2020 doesn’t happen again.”
April Goggans, core organizer of Black Lives Matter D.C., said the settlement marks a win “for the ongoing resistance against all attempts to subvert dissent.”
“The use of tear gas and rubber bullets will never be enough to silence our voices or diminish our duty to demand an end to police violence against Black communities,” Ms. Goggans said.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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