Trump inadvertently reveals the truth about the police response to the protests

Monday afternoon in Washington, D.C., a peaceful demonstration against police brutality had gathered in Lafayette Park near the White House. It was covered from multiple angles by journalists, including several live TV feeds. At about 6:30 p.m. — before the city's 7 p.m. curfew had taken effect — a huge mass of law enforcement, including federal and military police, suddenly attacked the demonstrators with tear gas, rubber bullets, concussions grenades, and clubs. Cops bludgeoned two two Australian reporters directly in front of live cameras, which prompted an official investigation from the Australian state.

Axios headlined their article about the event as "Trump goes full law-and-order." We see that this phrase means more-or-less the opposite of what it seems to mean. In this case, it was the police who were violently disrupting order and violating the law — in particular, the First Amendment. The intent, coming from the very top of the American government, is to brutally suppress Americans' constitutional rights. If President Trump and more than a few police departments have their way, freedom of assembly will be null and void in this country insofar as it is invoked to protest police brutality.

In absolutely classic Trump style, it turns out that the park had been violently purged so that he could conduct a photo-op in front of the nearby St. John's Episcopal Church. Administration sources told reporters that he did this because he was embarrassed about the coverage of how he had fled to a bunker during the protests over the weekend. A strongman must always appear strong — especially if he happens to be a coward.

After walking through the trashed park and past a wall of obscene anti-Trump graffiti, he stood before the church and held aloft a bible, bizarrely turning it back and forth like some auctioneer of rare books. One reporter asked Trump if the bible was his own. "It's a bible," he responded. Later it was discovered several of the church's clergy had been gassed out of the patio of their own place of worship. The local Episcopal leader, Marian Budde, told The Washington Post: "I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call, that they would be clearing [the area] with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/trump-inadvertently-reveals-the-truth-about-the-police-response-to-the-protests/ar-BB14Wd3o?ocid=msn360