If you still weren’t convinced of the legal double standard between the right and the left, this announcement by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday should remove all doubt.
The Biden Administration’s radical civil rights division boss at the DOJ has “reached an agreement to settle claims in four civil cases arising from the June 1, 2020, law enforcement response to racial justice demonstrations in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C.”
Protesters breach the barricade around Lafayette square – so far peaceful – police in riot gear standing by #dcprotest pic.twitter.com/oHgYUC4RHD
— Joy Malbon (@JoyCTV) May 31, 2020
This was during the Black Lives Matter and Antifa Reign of Terror or, as then-Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan accidentally coined it, a “Summer of Love,” after the George Floyd riots began in Minneapolis and spread across the country.
Protesters and violent rioters set seized upon Lafayette Square, breaching a White House perimeter, and rioted, rallied, and set fires for days. An umbrella group called “Shut Down DC,” composed of far-left professional agitators, including Lisa Fithian, called helped orchestrate the attack to incapacitate the nation’s capitol.
Washington, D.C. not only indulged this “first amendment activity,” but Mayor Muriel Bowser also encouraged it by memorializing part of the city streets with a Black Lives Matter mural paid for by taxpayers.
And now the feds are basically apologizing and acknowledging that they weren’t nice enough when they cleared the rioters and arsonists in front of the White House — rioters who torched the so-called “President’s Church” and forced then President Donald Trump and his family into the bunker for their safety.
And make no mistake this is more about Trump and less about civil rights.
DOJ Civil Rights Division head Vanita Gupta settled with BLM DC to make “changes to agency policies for protest responses will strengthen our commitment to protecting and respecting constitutionally protected rights.”
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Among the changes are giving people protesting with arsonists, rioters, and statue-removers the benefit of the doubt, promising not to tear gas them, and allowing them to disperse before getting sprayed.
DC riot police are clearing people away from H Street, near Lafayette Square and the White House, chanting in unison for people to “move back, move back.” pic.twitter.com/eMn2ubJOA0
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 23, 2020
In a news release, Gupta said the DOJ’s federal officer and Park Police would “amend its policies to provide that the fact that some demonstrators have engaged in unlawful conduct does not ordinarily provide blanket grounds for use of force, crowd dispersal or declaration of unlawful assembly.”
The upshot is that it will be next to impossible to declare a riot and use crowd dispersal if some peaceful protesters in attendance refuse to leave.
The agreement between the DOJ and BLM DC also means that the organization agrees to drop its lawsuits against the feds.
Among other changes in policy that will be implemented within 30 days, according to the press release, the feds promise to:
- Require officers to wear fully visible badges and nameplates including on outerwear, tactical gear, and helmets;
- Implement guidelines concerning the use of non-lethal force, including de-escalation tactics;
- Adopt clearer procedures for issuing dispersal warnings and permitting demonstrators to disperse; and
- Strengthen pre-event planning and on-site coordination between USPP and other law enforcement agencies.
Most of these things were already being done by the nation’s cops. BLM and Antifa don’t get permits for their riots.
The tumult about the Lafayette Square riot, in which 60 law enforcement officers were injured, is about Donald Trump’s photo op with a Bible from the arsonist-burned church.
The square was cleared out before President Trump’s walk to the church to hold up a Bible as a message of moral clarity in the face of such violence.
Jonathan Turley argued Wednesday that Congress may have prevented the U.S. Capitol Police from preparing for the January 6 riot to protect a false narrative about the reason Lafayette Square was cleared after riots in 2020. https://t.co/dYQui9vMkO
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) April 14, 2021
Indeed so much mythology arose about clearing Lafayette Square that the Inspector General was asked by the Trump Administration to investigate. The report concluded that the feds had not cleared the grounds for a photo op. Indeed, in his public statements and his post-administration book, One Damn Thing After Another, former Attorney General Bill Barr said the stories were bogus.
Riot police drove priests and charity workers off Lafayette Square with concussion grenades and tear gas so that Trump could pose with a Bible. #MakeAmericaGreatAgain pic.twitter.com/Svrb9D6P7H
— Otto English (@Otto_English) June 2, 2020
What should remain evident is the double standard system of justice meted out against the leftists who have caused billions of dollars in damage, killed people, and injured cops in their hundreds of riots versus the right-leaning people at one riot at the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.
Some of the people in jail for that Jan. 6 riot still await charges or are locked up for misdemeanors. They would like the Justice Department to remember that the U.S. Constitution applies to them too.
Will Vanita Gupta and Attorney General Merrick Garland apply the law equally to them? Ever?
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