The Washington Post reports that fencing was erected around St. John’s Lafayette Square and church officials say it’s not something they asked for.
Leaders of the yellow church that has been at the center of the District’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations say they are concerned about how police cleared protesters from the area earlier this week — and upset that the city built a fence around their property in the name of safety.
… Up went high fencing, blocking the park all along the south side of H Street, and blocking St. John’s — but not other nearby buildings — on the north side.
Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde and the Rev. Robert Fisher, the church rector, say church leaders gave the city permission to put up fencing but believed the entire block was being cordoned off and didn’t want to be the only structure outside the barrier.
The church issued this statement this evening: