The American Civil Liberties Union of DC and the Department of Justice announced a compromise Wednesday to resolve parts of four civil lawsuits caused by the violent and unprovoked liquidation of Lafayette Square protesters in June 2020 during a protest rally. the police. Law enforcement authorities have launched oaves, gas and rubber spheres in the host of hundreds of peaceful protesters for racial justice on June 1, 2020, Lafayette Square opposite the White House. Shortly afterwards, President Donald Trump walked through the clean park to visit the historic St. John’s Church, where he posed for a photo holding a Bible. Park police and the U.S. Secret Service agreed as part of the arrangement to “update and clarify” policies regarding the protests, the Justice Department wrote in a press release, detailing changes such as requiring officers to wear badges and signs in public view, including regular tools. and helmets. The services agreed to implement policy changes within 30 days, according to the settlement submitted Wednesday in the federal district court. Scott Michelman, ACLU’s legal director at DC, said the plaintiffs, including Black Lives Matter DC and individual protesters, held those responsible for the violent crackdown on protesters accountable, as well as precautionary measures to ensure that such violent and indiscriminate dispersal would not be repeated. “We believe that these and other measures we have gained through the settlement represent important steps forward in protecting the rights of protesters in the future,” said Michelman. Civil rights groups behind the case highlighted specific aspects of the settlement in a press release, including the dispersal requirements that the Park Police facilitate a safe exit and provide audible warnings. Park Police are not allowed to revoke licenses to demonstrate the absence of a “clear and existing danger to public safety” and police officers may not display gas masks and shields without the approval of a high-ranking officer, “in the absence of demanding circumstances,” court records show. Secret Service policy has also been amended to include that even if some members of a mob engage in illegal conduct, officers do not usually have “perfect reasons” for using force, court records show. In a statement, Deputy Attorney General Vanita Gupta said: “These changes in the services of the protesting services will strengthen our commitment to the protection and respect of constitutionally protected rights.” Some of the changes highlighted by civil rights groups echo similar language taken in a 2015 settlement in which authorities allegedly violated the constitutional rights of hundreds of protesters and bystanders when they were arrested without warning during a September 2002 demonstration in Pershing. against the World Bank, he said. Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the Civil Justice Partnership Fund, the nonprofit group that sued Pershing Park. A 13-year legal battle begins over police tactics and the right to protest The deal, which U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan called “historic” when it approved the deal at the time, revised policing practices and included the requirement of three audible warnings at least two minutes apart to disperse crowds and trails for to leave the protesters before a mass arrest. . Verheyden-Hilliard said she was concerned that law enforcement in Lafayette Square seemed to ignore what she called existing and arduous standards and disagreed with estimates that the policy was not valid. “The park police should be held accountable for violating these rules, which have been in place and are in force,” said Verheyden-Hilliard, who is also a constitutional rights lawyer. “I just do not think you can look at the language that is a copy of the mandate and the policies and the settlement agreement that came into force in 2015 and claim that this is a new language and a new dawn for democracy when it does not do the ball. in front”. Park police chiefs have said the policy of how often and how officers should warn protesters applies to mass arrests rather than to crowds like in Lafayette Square, according to a 2021 report from Office of the Inspector General. The report advised the Park Police to include a detailed policy for “operations involving protests that may require the use of force but do not involve large-scale arrests”. Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based police think tank, described the policy updates described by the Department of Justice as measures that better align federal policies with proposed standards used by local agencies in all over the country. “It keeps federal law enforcement on the same standards as state and local authorities, having their names on their uniforms, warning people; that’s what policing best practices look like,” he said. In cases arising from the clearing of Lafayette Square, U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich – appointed by Trump in 2017, who previously served as federal attorney, Assistant to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and fellow White House Adviser Bush – had already dismissed most of the allegations in overlapping lawsuits filed by the DCLU of DC, the Washington Bar Association of Civil Rights and Civil Affairs, and the Committee of Civil Lawyers under the Act. and Arnold & Porter law firms; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Regan Zambri Long. This settlement comes almost two years after the massive show of force that injured and injured protesters. The protesters tried to escape the sudden police attack, many with arms raised, shouting “do not shoot” while others were vomiting, they came and cried. “When they started firing tear gas at the crowd, it sounded like bombs exploding and the scene quickly turned into a war zone,” said plaintiff Radiya Buchanan in a statement. “People were running on top of each other, looking for anything to spill in their eyes to stop the burning, while trying to avoid flares and gas canisters. “I did not feel like we were in America.” Plaintiffs’ attorneys said in a press release that the settlement did not address all claims for compensation and that they would continue to “seek compensation for the protesters and accountability for those directly involved.” The Office of the Inspector General found that while DC police used tear gas against protesters as they tried to leave the park and Bureau of Prisons officers sprayed pepper spray, park police did not do so, according to a June 2021 report. warnings from park police before the mass dispersal were also largely ineffective, as they were not widely heard among the crowd, according to the report. Investigators also said they found no evidence that park police cleared the square for the Trump photo Bible. “We hope this up-to-date policy can serve as a model for others to defend civil rights and facilitate safe demonstrations,” said Chuck Sams, director of the National Park Service, which includes the Park Police. “It’s good for the public and good for our officers.”
