WASHINGTON — D.C.'s police union is slamming a report on law enforcement tactics during this summer's Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
The union chair called the ACLU analysis fraudulent, one-sided, and said divorced from reality.
The ACLU wants the city to tweak its law on first amendment assemblies to keep police from "kettling," or trapping protesters. The 18-page ACLU report focuses on the mass arrests of racial justice protestors on Swann Street N.W. on June 1 and June 2, 2020.
The evening had started with Trump's photo op at the church and the sudden police confrontation with protesters in Lafayette Square.
That night, Metropolitan Police officers funneled hundreds of people onto Swann Street. Some retreated into residents homes to escape police and pepper spray, but hundreds were arrested for curfew violation. They had their hands zip-tied, their masks pulled down so police could take pictures of them, and then were held for hours, sometimes in close quarters.
"I was here with my 20-year-old daughter telling her, 'No matter what's going on, you have to fight for what you believe in," said one protester months after the incident. "I didn't see any sympathy or empathy. Honestly, I thought to myself, 'Who do you protect?'" said Jorge Fuentes.
The ACLU said interviews with 50 protestors and residents found they were never given a chance to disperse or go home.
"An excessive and ill-advised action that subjected the demonstrators to unnecessary trauma, and put them at risk of exposure to COVID-19," said Scott Michelman, the ACLU DC Legal Director
Now police union chair Gregg Pemberton is responding to the report by accusing the protestors of “violent and riotous behavior,” of "setting multiple cars on fire," and "throwing bricks at police officers."
"Our officers acted professionally and appropriately.... This is just another contrived effort by the ACLU to achieve their goals of defunding police," said Pemberton in part of his statement.
"They were cited for breaking curfew. Don't you think they would have been charged with something more serious if they had done something more serious?" Michelman responded.
The union rejects the report, but the ACLU hopes city leaders will use it to tighten its law on First Amendment protests and implement what it called more humane, fair and just policing.