Religious Freedom: St. John Paul II National Shrine

People of faith are being harassed as New York City is burning.

NYC is burning and guess where @BilldeBlasio has his cops tonight!

In Williamsburg Brooklyn warning Orthodox Hasidic Jews that they will be arrested for attending evening prayers.

Not rioting, not looting, not beating, not killing, just praying.

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— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) June 3, 2020

Today, President Trump and the First Lady visited the St. John Paul II National Shrine.

That didn't sit well with Archbishop Wilton Gregory.

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— Saint John Paul II Shrine (@JP2Shrine) June 2, 2020

It's disgraceful that the archbishop lashed out the way he did.

He didn't have the facts.

Statement from United States Park Police acting Chief Gregory T. Monahan about the actions taken over the weekend to protect life and property

Date: June 2, 2020
Contact: uspp_pio@nps.gov

The United States Park Police (USPP) is committed to the peaceful expression of First Amendment rights. However, this past weekend’s demonstrations at Lafayette Park and across the National Mall included activities that were not part of a peaceful protest, which resulted in injuries to USPP officers in the line of duty, the destruction of public property and the defacing of memorials and monuments. During four days of demonstrations, 51 members of the USPP were injured; of those, 11 were transported to the hospital and released and three were admitted.

Multiple agencies assisted the USPP in responding to and quelling the acts of destruction and violence over the course of the weekend in order to protect citizens and property.

On Monday, June 1, the USPP worked with the United States Secret Service to have temporary fencing installed inside Lafayette Park. At approximately 6:33 pm, violent protestors on H Street NW began throwing projectiles including bricks, frozen water bottles and caustic liquids. The protestors also climbed onto a historic building at the north end of Lafayette Park that was destroyed by arson days prior. Intelligence had revealed calls for violence against the police, and officers found caches of glass bottles, baseball bats and metal poles hidden along the street.

To curtail the violence that was underway, the USPP, following established policy, issued three warnings over a loudspeaker to alert demonstrators on H Street to evacuate the area. Horse mounted patrol, Civil Disturbance Units and additional personnel were used to clear the area. As many of the protestors became more combative, continued to throw projectiles, and attempted to grab officers’ weapons, officers then employed the use of smoke canisters and pepper balls. No tear gas was used by USPP officers or other assisting law enforcement partners to close the area at Lafayette Park. Subsequently, the fence was installed.

Throughout the demonstrations, the USPP has not made any arrests. The USPP will always support peaceful assembly but cannot tolerate violence to citizens or officers or damage to our nation’s resources that we are entrusted to protect.

When we have media serving as propagandists for Democrats and Leftists, and now ANARCHISTS, we have a serious problem.

Obviously, this abuse by the media has contributed to a serious breakdown of order in our society.

As a free people, we need to the know truth.

St. John Paul II, pray for us.