Page 8 - Florida Sentinel 6-5-20

Political News
Protesters Dispersed With Tear Gas So Trump Could Pose At Church
WASHINGTON — People who gathered outside the White House to protest police brutality spent Monday waving signs and screaming for justice. They watched as police officers and National Guard units flooded Lafayette Square, delivering on a threat made by President Trump. And just before the city’s 7 p.m. curfew went into ef- fect, they were hit with flash- bang explosions and doused with tear gas.
It was because the president, who spent part of the weekend in a secure bunker as protests roiled, wanted to have his pic- ture taken holding a Bible at a battered church just beyond the gates.
That church, St. John’s — the so-called Church of the Presi- dents because every one since James Madison has attended — had been briefly set ablaze as the protests devolved on Sunday evening. After Trump’s aides
spent much of Monday express- ing outrage over the burning of a place of worship, Hope Hicks, a presidential adviser, eventually hatched a plan with others at the White House to have the president walk over to the building, according to an of- ficial familiar with the events.
As Trump delivered a speech in the Rose Garden vow- ing to send the military to states where governors could not bring rioting under control but calling himself “an ally of all peaceful protesters,” the sound of explo- sions and the yells of demon- strators could be heard. After receiving repeated warnings to disperse before the city’s curfew, the crowd was tear-gassed.
Trump began his walk to the church at 7:01 p.m. for a photo session that lasted about 17 minutes. On his way over, after protesters had been driven from the park, he was trailed by a group of aides, including At-
PRESIDENT TRUMP
torney General William P. Barr. Mr. Barr had strolled to the edge of the police line to ob- serve the crowd in the minutes before the tear-gassing began.
He walked alongside Jared
Kushner, the president’s son- in-law and senior adviser, and Ivanka Trump, his eldest daughter and senior adviser. Trump was wearing a mask, one of the few visible reminders on Monday that the administra- tion was in the middle of bat- tling a public health crisis. Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, Hicks and Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, were also among the cadre of aides.
As police sirens blared in the background, Trump, his lips set in a thin line, stood with his back to the boarded-up, graffiti- laden facade of the buttermilk yellow church.
He cradled a Bible, bouncing it in his hands as if testing its weight.
“Is that your Bible?” a re- porter yelled.
“It’s a Bible,” Trump re- sponded, and hoisted up the book so reporters could see.
The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, who watched the scene unfold while away from the church visiting with her mother, said church of- ficials were not told of the plan and expressed outrage at the White House’s use of riot-con- trol tactics on a generally peace- ful crowd to clear a path for the president.
“He did not pray,” the bishop, Mariann E. Budde, said in an interview. Referring to the death of the black man in po- lice custody that set off the protests, she added: “He did not mention George Floyd, he did not mention the agony of people who have been subjected to this kind of horrific expression of racism and white supremacy for hundreds of years. We need a president who can unify and heal. He has done the opposite of that, and we are left to pick up the pieces.”
Obama Condemns Violence And Calls For Change In Wake Of George Floyd Protests
WASHINGTON - Former President Barack Obama on Monday condemned violence amid protests over the death of George Floyd and police bru- tality and called for political solu- tions to address protesters' grievances about criminal justice.
The message from Obama, who previously decried Floyd's death last week when he said the killings of black men at the hands of police "shouldn't be 'normal' in 2020 America," follows a week- end that saw an escalation in protests nationwide.
"Let's not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher eth- ical code, then we have to model that code ourselves," Obama wrote in an essay on Medium.
As the country's first black president, Obama is in a unique position to address the racial di- vide at the heart of the protests. He didn't mention his successor, President Donald Trump, who has largely stoked tensions by calling protesters "thugs" and threatening violence against loot- ers, though he also called for "healing, not hatred" in remarks about the crisis on Saturday.
The former president also noted that while protesting and civil disobedience puts a spotlight on racial injustice, "aspirations have to be translated into specific laws and institutional practices" and emphasized the importance of electing the right officials at all levels of government.
"Yes, we should be fighting to make sure that we have a presi-
BARACK OBAMA
dent, a Congress, a U. S. Justice Department, and a federal judici- ary that actually recognize the ongoing, corrosive role that racism plays in our society and want to do something about it," he wrote. "But the elected offi- cials who matter most in reform- ing police departments and the criminal justice system work at the state and local levels."
He added, "The bottom line is this: if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn't between protest and politics. We have to do both. We have to mo- bilize to raise awareness, and we have to organize and cast our bal- lots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on re- form."
In his statement on Friday, Obama called for officials in Minnesota to bring justice in Floyd's death.
"It falls on all of us, regardless of our race or station -- including the majority of men and women in law enforcement who take pride in doing their tough job the right way, every day -- to work to- gether to create a 'new normal' in which the legacy of bigotry and unequal treatment no longer in- fects our institutions or our hearts," Obama said at the time.
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