A week has passed since police cleared demonstrators so that Trump could walk from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church for an unannounced photo-op — demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd and other black men and women at the hands of police.
A Washington Post investigative team has combed through video records and other sources to reconstruct the timeline of the tactics used by police to clear the protestors for that photo-op. It shows police with gas masks and the use of CS gas, a chemical commonly known as tear gas, used on the crowd.
At about 6:30 p.m., just north of the White House, federal police in riot gear fired gas canisters and used grenades containing rubber pellets to scatter largely peaceful demonstrators. Their actions cleared the way for the president, surrounded by the nation’s top law enforcement and military leaders, to walk to the historic St. John’s Church for a three-minute photo op.
Drawing on footage captured from dozens of cameras, as well as police radio communications and other records, The Washington Post reconstructed the events of this latest remarkable hour of Trump’s presidency, including of the roles of the agencies involved and the tactics and weaponry they used.
Watch the 12 minute video here. Or here,