The Justice Department was too hasty in sending law enforcement to help clear protesters from parks and streets near the White House during the 2020 summer riots, the department’s inspector general said in a Wednesday report.
Officers were sent to help without having a clear mission, training or equipment. Some even lacked jackets to identify themselves as police, the audit found.
The audit shot down reports at the time that Attorney General William Barr was the one who prompted the heavy-handed clearing of Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020, just before President Donald Trump walked across the park to St. John’s Episcopal Church.
But investigators did ding Mr. Barr and his team for adding to the confusion.
“We were troubled by the department leadership’s decision-making that required DOJ law enforcement agents and elite tactical units to perform missions for which they lacked the proper equipment and training,” the report said.
The inspector general acknowledged the chaotic days of protests but said that was all the more reason for the department not to make decisions on the fly.
“In the midst of a crisis, during pressure-filled moments when leadership must make hard decisions with little time to fully assess collateral and unintended consequences, the time-tested law enforcement practices and procedures that were collectively developed, after careful and calm deliberation, can and should be the first and most trusted resource for department leadership,” the audit concluded.
The report largely confirms earlier findings that Mr. Trump’s visit was not the reason the park was cleared of unruly protesters. That decision was made by U.S. Park Police and was made well before it was known that he was going to make the walk.
Floyd, a Black man, died on May 25, 2020, at the hands of a White police officer in Minneapolis. His murder ignited riots and racial reckonings across the U.S.
In Washington, protesters were initially concentrated blocks north of the White House, then made their way to Lafayette Square by May 29.
By the evening of May 31, protesters were launching bottles and bricks at officers, who responded with rubber bullets. Part of St. John’s was also lit on fire.
Authorities moved to clear the park, put up a fence line and clear some of the streets north of the park.
Law enforcement agencies from several federal departments helped local police, including hundreds of officers from Justice Department agencies that were part of the inspector general’s review. They included the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, the Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The audit found those officers helped establish perimeters and defend other police from violent protesters but also added to the chaos. One D.C. police chief said the officers’ presence at one location “impeded” local cops’ ability to use the crowd control tactics they’d wanted.
At another point the Justice Department sent the FBI’s hostage rescue team to help the city cops. But it quickly became clear that the FBI agents were trained to deliver lethal force while the Metropolitan Police Department was looking for crowd control.
FBI agents were also deployed to protect monuments and museums, but they were uncertain about what they were legally able to do. At one point the bureau rushed to buy helmets, but they didn’t arrive until a week later. The FBI also pondered whether to buy gas masks and shields but realized their agents weren’t trained to use them.
The FBI wasn’t involved with clearing Lafayette Square, but the other Justice Department agencies were, the audit found — though it said they were following orders of the Park Police and Secret Service.
Those agencies had figured to clear the park and put up a fence line at 7 p.m. as a city curfew took effect.
Mr. Barr showed up at the park just after 6 p.m. and was surprised the fence wasn’t installed.
Officers began the clearing at 6:28, and it was completed by 6:50.
That chain of events spurred news stories that Mr. Barr ordered the park cleared or ordered it sped up.
The inspector general said there is scant evidence for that speculation.
Mr. Barr’s spokeswoman told a reporter the attorney general had urged police to “get it done,” but the inspector general said that after-the-fact assessment didn’t match what happened. Neither Mr. Barr nor the spokeswoman cooperated with the audit, the inspector general said.
A Secret Service deputy chief said given the crowd’s reaction she might have delayed the clearing but she felt she had no “flexibility” because of Mr. Trump’s looming walk. Still, she said that was her own sense and not due to any pressure from the president or his protective detail of agents.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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