On Monday the media almost universally reported that police in Washington DC used tear gas on peaceful protesters to clear a path for Trump to visit St. John's Episcopal Church. But now it's clear that no tear gas was deployed and the protesters weren't peaceful.
Facts were no barrier to their narrative. They spun a tale of violent, jack-booted cops running rampant through the streets over innocent docile protesters, using tear gas to clear the area. It turns out none of that was true.Every single major media outlet falsely reported that Park Police were unprovoked when they used "tear gas" to clear the area. If any of that were true, it might mark the first time in history that cops without gas masks launched tear gas in an area that the president of the United States easily walked through minutes later.
After thousands of false tweets, print stories, and broadcast stories to the contrary, local journalist Neal Augenstein of WTOP reported that a Park Police source said "tear gas was never used -- instead smoke canisters were deployed, which don't have an uncomfortable irritant in them." Further, the source said the crowd was dispersed because of projectiles being thrown by the "peaceful protesters" at the Park Police and because "peaceful protesters" had climbed on top of a structure in Lafayette Park that had been burned the prior night.
