In my (somewhat limited) experience, even in a non-contentious situation, if one is in a park that has personnel come around to shoo people out for closing, said personnel do not wait until closing time to start asking people to leave. In this case I believe the 7 pm curfew set the closing: If a large crowd was present, given the prior nights’ trouble, the security people even less a POTUS stroll through would start asking people to leave at, what, 6:30 pm at the latest?
My question here is, did the protesters balk at leaving?
There were mounted DC or Capitol police in a phalanx formation to get the scum to leave.
Yes they did balk at leaving. The 7pm curfew was known and you could clearly hear flash bangs going off long before the President even entered the Rose Garden to speak.
Yes they did balk at leaving. The 7pm curfew was known and you could clearly hear flash bangs going off long before the President even entered the Rose Garden to speak.
Doesn't matter, when law enforcement issues a directive to move along or vacate and area, it's a lawful directive. If you choose to remain, you are no longer a peaceful protester, you are failing to abide by a lawful directive.
In the videos I have seen, I did not see any attempt made to ask the protesters to move. On the other hand, they are from far away, so I have no idea if the park police had gone through and asked them to make space.
I mean, people know that if the President is going somewhere, the secret service has teh right and authority to move anybody they want, block any streets, etc. I’m just not sure it was a good look. It doesn’t hurt to be nice to peaceful protesters, and seems like it makes it easier to attack violent protesters later.