We have all seen the stupid stunt that Trump performed yesterday that was wrong on so many levels (trample civil liberties, endanger protestors and police, hold a bible upside down, randomly point to the place he’s squatting in and say “White House”). Some of us may have had the stomach to watch his six minute rambling about domination and “overwhelming law enforcement presence” that occurred just after US Park Police and other agencies, including the Arlington County PD (from just across the river) used a variety of Less Lethal munitions to clear the area around Lafayette Park, where American citizens were protesting peacefully. For those that missed that verbal shart-fest, it was more of the same violent fantasy that we’ve heard before with a real focus on that “overwhelming law enforcement” theme.
Okay, then. Let’s just go out on a limb and say he has plan. It’s a bad plan (again, for multiple reasons related to both morality and efficacy). But he’s running with it (like drunk toddler runs with scissors) until he gets distracted by something else, or until Putin calls back with new instructions.
So you think he would try to… y’know… keep as many cops on the streets as possible. But Trump is King ant-Midas. Everything he touches turns to crap or otherwise fails. Yesterday, his actions directly caused the Arlington County PD to pack up and go home. A tweet from County Board Chair Libby Garvey.
Local news link below:
www.arlnow.com/…
In short:
“ACPD’s Civil Disturbance Unit responded to a mutual aid request by United States Park Police for assistance maintain peace and order on federal park land,” according to department spokeswoman Ashley Savage. Arlington Now Link here: www.arlnow.com/...
Also. Here is a message from the Arlington County Chief of Police. I am not trying to lay down too much “copaganda” here, but he does cite specific, long terms actions that the PD has taken to build and maintain more effective relations with fellow citizens and I think it is useful to have good models to point to:
newsroom.arlingtonva.us/...
Oh yeah... Why were they there in the first place? DC has (according to one reporter last night) 37 law enforcement agencies that operate with a gun and badge in the District. Playing along at home I could only come up with 14 (more if included college police that I have see armed). Short answer: a mutual aid agreement. Nothing really nefarious here. They are pretty common agreements between neighboring cities to share police, fire, and EMS resources. Should they be re-examined so that they are not used to support paramilitary actions? Yeah. And they might be according to statement from the County.
CNN has picked up the story www.cnn.com/...