Rioters gathered Monday in Lafayette Square before the White House where they clashed with police as they attempted to tear down a monument to former U.S. President Andrew Jackson and set up a Black House Autonomous Zone.
Video footage from on-the-ground Daily Caller reporters shows rioters attempting to pull down the monument to Jackson early on in the evening. The protesters chanted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Andrew Jackson’s got to go,” Fox News reported. The rioters were unsuccessful in tearing down the monument before police arrived on the scene.
BREAKING from Lafayette Square in front of The White House pic.twitter.com/jkRBdfUMRu
— Richie?McG? (@RichieMcGinniss) June 23, 2020
As the rioters were forced to move further away from the statue, they began to get more angry and indignant and began to fight the police, reporters on the ground said.
Subsequent footage shows the rioters clashing with police, who used a chemical irritant believed to be pepper spray, their shields, and a bicycle wall to push the rioters back away from the monument, WUSA9 reports.
Several reporters, including Daily Caller video editor Richie McGuiness, were hit by the pepper spray.
Police have arrived at the White House where protesters were trying to tear down a statue and build an autonomous zone. Tensions are high: pic.twitter.com/TFnkOR8cs6
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) June 23, 2020
The rioters then proceeded to vandalize St. John’s Church, which had previously been vandalized in riots earlier during the summer. Rioters spray painted “BHAZ” on the historic church, which stands for “Black House Autonomous Zone.”
Standoff in front of the White House/next to the church (the church has been vandalized and reads BHAZ, the symbols of the autonomous zone they tried to create) pic.twitter.com/CQWFfNPEFH
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) June 23, 2020
Footage shows that some rioters lit a fire on the ground, which others quickly put out, sparking arguments.
“Defund the police,” a rioter shouts into a megaphone at a group of police officers, many of whom are kneeling. “F— all y’all.”
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