Prepare ye the way of the Trump. Make straight paths for him

In its full context, though, Trump’s trip to St. John’s, the church vandalized and partly burned by protesters Sunday night, was worse. He deployed a battalion of law enforcement to push back peaceful protesters forcibly for the sole purpose of clearing a path for him to make a perfunctory photo op that served no purpose higher than his own politics.

Using the Bible as a prop is profane and sadly common. Deploying fully armed police against peaceful citizens to arrange this photo op is the sort of penny-ante corruption you expect from a debauched city government.

Protesters had assembled, as they have on recent nights, at Lafayette Square across from the White House. Police had a barricade on the far end of the park so that the public could stand on the sidewalk on either side of the street but not in the park.

The protest was peaceful. Some protesters angrily yelled across the fence barricade at the members of the Secret Service, who were arrayed in riot gear with armor, masks, billy clubs, and plastic shields. But mostly, the protesters were chanting and waving signs.

Then shortly after 6:15, the lines of Secret Service began marching forward, pushing the crowds back. Because the officers were often standing face-to-face with protesters, and because the advances by the officers went as far as 20 yards at a time, this inevitably involved police shoving otherwise peaceful protesters (sometimes before, sometimes after, a verbal demand to move).

This shoving sparked some retaliation. A group of young men who had clearly come to scuffle started hurling plastic water bottles and eggs at Secret Service near Vermont Avenue. The officers didn’t react to these projectiles, but they kept pushing forward.

You can watch videos of one such advance here:

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Steadily, the armored officers pushed back the crowds so that nobody was on H Street for the whole length of the park. The crowd on 16th Street was pushed back even farther.

I had followed the egg and bottle throwers up to Vermont Avenue, and from my vantage point, I figured the advances were for the purpose of separating the crowd into three smaller groups: By closing off H Street, the protesters on Vermont were separated from those on 16th and from those on Connecticut Avenue. I figured this was to make curfew enforcement easier. But it wasn’t about curfew enforcement.

At about 6:53, one officer from Homeland Security told me that the curfew would be strictly enforced and that violators would “go to jail.” That never happened. After officers forced us all onto Vermont Avenue at just about 7:00, there were no more advances, and none of the few hundred law enforcement from the three agencies present told us we had to leave.

The police aggression was more intense at the other parts of H Street, judging by videos. At least one reporter on the scene said tear gas was used. Here’s another video:

Remember: There was no curfew enforcement in front of the White House tonight. This advance was, by all appearances, an effort to clear a path for Trump to get to the church.

The walk, it seems, was supposed to be a sign of Trump’s courage.

Here’s how Donald Trump Jr. presented it — not as an effort to promote healing in a damaged city but as a way to prove the president’s bravery.

In short, Trump ordered violence by others in order to create an illusion of his own strength and courage.

Of course, the Secret Service often has to be rough in order to protect the president. But just as the violence of war is an argument against going to war lightly, the violence tonight was a good argument against the president doing frivolous photo ops in serious times. If Trump knew he was going to do this, he could have had the Secret Service set up the barricade further out before the evening protests got crowded. Then, there would have been no shoving or smoke grenades needed.

Ordering force against peaceful protesters always has downsides. It physically endangers the protesters who are shoved or tear-gassed. It physically endangers the police who are thrust into altercations. It also has a moral cost. At the root of the tension behind the protests is a frayed relationship between law enforcement and the public. The attacks on peaceful protesters and journalists Monday night will make that worse.

Timothy P. Carney

I spent a couple of hours with the protesters and with law enforcement Monday night. The Secret Service agents were not enjoying themselves.

I also have friends in just about every law enforcement agency in D.C., including the Secret Service. They aren’t, as many of the protesters make them out to be, fascists or thugs. They’re men and women who want to serve their country and community. For members of the Secret Service, their job has been to protect public officials from evildoers, not to rough up their peaceful neighbors gratuitously.