(DailyAnswer.org) – Law enforcement officials were chased out of a park next to the White House by anti-Israel protesters on June 8 as pressure mounts on President Joe Biden to cease military aid to Tel Aviv and arrange a ceasefire in the war in Gaza. A video was posted on X by reporter Julio Rosas that showed protesters telling the authorities that they had to leave before chanting “F*** the police”.
Members of the Secret Service and U.S. Park Police reportedly tried to arrest someone before the protesters formed a mob and chased them out of the park. In another video shared on X, protesters told the officials to “let her go” before officers struggled with the activist and used mace against both members of the press and protesters.
In 2023 an inquiry found that the US Park Police used excessive force against journalists at protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody. U.S. Park Police officers and Secret Service agents previously chased two journalists out of the same park on May 30, 2020 after police officers deployed a cloud of pepper spray in an attempt to disperse the crowd of protesters.
A cleanup operation is underway in Lafayette Park after protesters sprayed pro-Palestine graffiti throughout the park. The Rochambeau statue and the General Lafayette statue were badly vandalized with graffiti. A truck close to the protest carried a slogan calling for the boycott of Israeli goods.
Protesters were filmed calling a park ranger a “fascist” and throwing objects at them near one of the statues. Separate footage showed activists unrolling a red banner they meant to surround the White House with in reference to Biden’s “red line” on the conflict. In anticipation of Tel Aviv’s controversial Rafah offensive, the president warned that this could involve crossing a “red line” in the conflict.
Biden slated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the planned offensive on Rafah, which houses a million Palestinian refugees. The U.S. president said Netanyahu was harming Israel rather than helping it, and that another 30,000 dead Palestinians would be unacceptable.
Following dozens of deaths of Palestinians in the assault, however, Biden stated that it had not crossed a “red line” in the conflict. The shift in position, together with Biden’s clampdown on antisemitic rhetoric at campus protests and indecision over whether to stall military aid to Tel Aviv, highlights the president’s conflicted stance on the conflict.
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