United States: US Attorney General William Barr exposed security hazards when he sent inexperienced federal police to address racial justice protests near the White House in 2020, a Justice Department report on Wednesday showed, as reported by Reuters.
The report concentrated on the participation of Barr in dealing with protests in Washington after the police killing of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis that led to protests all over the world.
Troubling Decision-Making
“We were troubled by the department leadership’s decision-making that required DOJ law enforcement agents and elite tactical units to perform missions for which they lacked the proper equipment and training,” wrote Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz in the report, which found that Barr’s leadership created a “chaotic and disorganized” response.
Lack of Guidance and Equipment
He also pointed out that sending armed agents to quell civil unrest without direction “created safety and security risks for the agents and the public.”
Barr was not interviewed for the report and according to the Justice Department did not respond to an interview request from Reuters, he was not immediately available for comment.
Police dispersed the protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets near the White House ahead of then President Donald Trump’s brief appearance in front of the historic church holding a bible.
Black Lives Matter protesters later sued the government, and the Justice Department has settled four such cases in 2022 with assurances that police departments alter the way they approach demonstrations.
The report said that Barr personally ordered Bureau of Prisons tactical teams to be deployed to the scene in an “attempt to demonstrate that law enforcement could handle the civil unrest without active-duty military intervention.”
The report disapproves of this decision, arguing that prison employees were left “with no guidance as to their mission or rules of engagement.”
Contradicting Statements
Public records reveal that at the time of the incident, the head of public affairs in the Department of Justice stated that Barr directed the police to act against the protesters.
Thursday’s report refuted this claim, with Horowitz stating that his staff was unable to gather evidence to support the veracity of this statement.
In an interview with the investigators, Barr noted that he thought that the deployment of law enforcement personnel was done in an exceptionally good way, as reported by Reuters.
He also stated that the officials he worked with knew the goal and that “none expressed to me any confusion over their assignments or concern about their ability to carry them out.”