Reading the Park Police IG Report More Closely. It doesn't support the headlines.
Yesterday, the Inspector General for the Department of the Interior released a report on the United States Park Police’s (USPP) involvement in the expulsion that was widely taken to knock down that conclusion. The IG’s executive summary says it was really all about installing a security fence:
The evidence we obtained did not support a finding that the USPP cleared the park to allow the President to survey the damage and walk to St. John’s Church. Instead, the evidence we reviewed showed that the USPP cleared the park to allow [a Secret Service] contractor to safely install the antiscale fencing in response to destruction of property and injury to officers occurring on May 30 and 31. Further, the evidence showed that the USPP did not know about the President’s potential movement until mid- to late afternoon on June 1—hours after it had begun developing its operational plan and the fencing contractor had arrived in the park.
Most media outlets built their headlines around this conclusion—
CBS: “Watchdog finds clearing of protesters from Lafayette Park wasn't for Trump photo op”
ABC: “Police did not clear Lafayette Square so Trump could hold 'Bible' photo op: Watchdog”
CNN: “Watchdog report finds Park Police did not clear racial injustice protesters from Lafayette Park for Trump's visit to St. John's Church last June”
The problem with these headlines is the actual IG report is too jurisdictionally limited to support, and offers multiple reasons to doubt, its exonerative conclusion. (Indeed, if you click through, you’ll find each of the news stories linked above is more equivocal than its headline.) The oversimplification of the report in these headlines and in tv coverage has led to widespread confusion about its contents. Here are a few important points to know about what the IG report actually says and doesn’t say:
Jurisdictional Limitations. The IG report only concerns itself with the activities and decision-making of one federal agency, the Park Police, out of many who were present at Lafayette Park on June 1, 2020.
-snip-
The Secret Service’s Request and Key Redactions. Despite its jurisdictional limits, the IG report documents a number of potentially significant interactions the USPP had with other agencies, in particular the Secret Service.
-snip-
Unexplained Secret Service Decisions. The IG report reveals that the Secret Service took actions that were contrary to the USPP operational plan which affected the overall timing and conduct of the clearing operation.
full article:
https://www.nycsouthpaw.com/p/reading-the-park-police-ig-report
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