Attorney General William Barr lavished praise on Washington, D.C.’s, various law enforcement agencies and the National Guard for what he said was a major step toward ending violent protests in the nation’s capital.
“Last night was a more peaceful night in the District of Columbia. Working together, federal and local law enforcement made significant progress in restoring order to the nation’s capital,” Barr said in a statement on Tuesday. “There will be even greater law enforcement resources and support in the region tonight. The most basic function of government is to provide security for people to live their lives and exercise their rights, and we will meet that responsibility here in the nation’s capital.”
George Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man, died in police custody last week after a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, pinned him down by placing a knee on the back of his neck for several minutes. Footage of the incident set off a wave of outrage leading to protests in major cities across the nation, some of which became violent as some protesters rioted, looted stores, destroyed property, burned buildings, and clashed with police.
Chauvin is facing charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter, but Floyd’s family believes the charges should be upgraded to first-degree murder because there may have been “intent.”
Barr’s statement comes a day after D.C. National Guard units were deployed to the streets of the nation’s capital to respond to protests that turned violent over the weekend. The city was rocked by wide-scale looting Saturday night, and a large protest near Lafayette Park on Sunday evening descended into violence as protesters shot fireworks and threw water bottles at police as law enforcement then used nonlethal weapons against the crowd. Multiple fires were lit, including in the basement of the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church, before police moved in and cleared out the crowd.
Monday night saw less violence as D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser moved the curfew from 11 p.m. to 7 p.m., and law enforcement and military presence on D.C. streets increased. Police controversially cleared protesters away from Lafayette Park across from the White House just before curfew and Trump’s quick visit to St. John’s.
Barr was seen surveying the situation in Lafayette Park before nonlethal weapons were used to remove the demonstrators from the area. He stood next to Trump as he held up a Bible for the cameras in front of the church and later walked the streets of the city with Defense Secretary Mark Esper to visit law enforcement on patrol.
AG Bill Barr and @EsperDOD visit law enforcement patrolling in downtown Washington.
:movie_camera:@apimientaDC pic.twitter.com/hZbLjOQVRu
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 2, 2020
“I am particularly impressed by the citizen-soldiers of the D.C. National Guard, who are committed to serving their community, and did so with great effectiveness last night,” Barr said in his statement Tuesday.
The attorney general praised Peter Newsham, D.C.’s chief of police, as well as the Metropolitan Police Department for “their outstanding work and professionalism,” as he noted the nation’s capital is “well served by this exceptional police force.” Barr also thanked Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Giving a shout out to the FBI, Secret Service, Park Police, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Agency, Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Marshals Service, Capitol Police, Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection agency, and Border Patrol, Barr said he was “grateful to the many federal law enforcement agencies and personnel who helped protect the District.”
Barr declared over the weekend that the violence being “instigated and carried out” by “antifa and other similar groups” in connection to nationwide rioting is “domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly.”
“With the rioting that is occurring in many of our cities around the country, the voices of peaceful and legitimate protests have been hijacked by violent radical elements,” he said Sunday. “Groups of outside radicals and agitators are exploiting the situation to pursue their own separate, violent, and extremist agenda.”
