Park Police chief says officers used 'tremendous restraint' removing Lafayette Square protesters

In fact, acting Chief Gregory Monahan asserted that officers used "tremendous restraint" when removing the protesters.

That incident in Lafayette Square, which came at the height of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the nation's capital, was viewed by some as an example of the overly aggressive policing the protest was critiquing in the wake of George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis.

But Monahan said videos of the clash played in the hearing room did not capture the projectiles that had been thrown at officers earlier that day, nor the violence in the park over the last several days, which caused police leaders to order fortified fencing for the area. The threat was not visible "in the context of the video that you showed," he conceded at one point.

"The use of force that the United States Park Police employed on June 1 was in line with our policies and procedures," Monahan said after a series of questions about video clips. Force was used only when met with resistance, he insisted.

Soon after the group of protesters was cleared, Trump walked through the area for a photo opportunity outside St. John's Church off the park.

"We did not clear the park for a photo op," Monahan testified. "There was 100%, zero, no correlation between our operation and the President's visit to the church."

Monahan said the Park Police's operation "was solely centered around the clearing of H Street and the north end of Lafayette Park to de-escalate the sustained level of violence that you saw over the previous three days and then again on June 1."

A major in the DC National Guard, Adam D. DeMarco, testified Tuesday that the fencing arrived at the scene several hours after the clearing operation began. Monahan said DeMarco "was mistaken."

DeMarco also challenged the Trump administration's description of the crowd that evening as violent.

"The demonstrators were behaving peacefully, exercising their First Amendment rights," DeMarco said, adding he was surprised the clearing operation began well in advance of a 7 p.m. ET curfew set by Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser. DeMarco, who described himself as one of the senior National Guard officials on the scene, ran as a Democrat for Maryland's 3rd Congressional District in 2018.

The operation was criticized at the hearing by Democrats as excessively aggressive, while Republican members said "anarchists" and other agitators were in the crowd.

Monahan testified the group threw "projectiles" toward his officers, and that some people attempted to jump two rows of low fencing on June 1 in advance of the clearing. In previous days, more than 50 Park Police officers had been injured after "bricks, rocks, caustic liquids, water bottles, lit flares, fireworks, and 2x4 sections of wood" were thrown at them.

Attorney General William Barr has defended the use of force to clear the protesters, saying his decision to disperse them followed signs that the crowd was "becoming increasingly unruly."

Monahan said he saw the attorney general in the park that evening but that the two did not have a conversation. (Monahan reports to the interior secretary rather than the attorney general.)

Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat, said he is concerned the dispersal was motivated by "partisan hostility directed from above."

Rep. Jody Hice, a Georgia Republican, said he hopes members of Congress can "see beyond the biased scope" through which Democrats view the incident.

The tactics used in clearing the demonstrators are also expected to come under scrutiny at the hearing, and are the subject of several investigations. Monahan has denied his officers used tear gas, even after his spokesman, Sgt. Eduardo Delgado, said in an interview with the website Vox that "it was a mistake" to deny the dispersants used were tear gas.

This story and headline have been updated with additional testimony from the Park Police acting chief.