New fencing encircles White House; continued federal forces on Day 5 of D.C. protests

Banging on fences erected near the White House and marching through the city to the U.S. Capitol, the largely peaceful protesters included high schoolers and stay-at-home moms, young parents and toddlers, elderly couples and large families. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., spoke with protesters, joined by her husband, Bruce Mann, and her golden retriever, Bailey. 

Tensions flared at multiple flash points at in the day, where protesters facing an even larger contingent of federal law enforcement authorities than Monday. Some turbulent gatherings Tuesday were hit with pepper spray and other shows of force as armored vehicles blocked city streets. 

By the time 7 p.m. hit, the scene was largely calm as the crowd of protesters took a knee in the middle of the streets and authorities made no early moves to enforce curfew. 

Many protesters said they came out because of what happened Monday, when hundreds of peaceful demonstrators were forcefully cleared from Lafayette Square - one of the country's most symbolic places of protest - by federal forces at the behest of Attorney General William Barr. Many were struck with pepper balls, others pushed and hit.

"You disgrace the constitution," someone screamed at federal forces Tuesday evening. 

"Show us that you're with us," a group of protesters yelled, asking them to take a knee. The officers stood up straight and did not comply.

"Shame, shame shame," they yelled at the officers.

At the outset of Tuesday's protests, hundreds of demonstrators found a newly erected fence around Lafayette Square, where protesters were removed Monday evening shortly before President Donald Trump walked through the area on his way to St. John's Episcopal Church, holding up a bible for television cameras.

Outside the fence, protesters knelt with fists and signs raised and chanted at a small cluster of federal police in the middle of the park. The officers, in short blue shirts and bulletproof vests, were a departure from the riot-ready officers that protesters have encountered at previous days' protest.

"Don't do what you did last night," a protester yelled through the tall black fence.

The closed park and the anger around it was just of many sign's tightening by federal forces. Armored vehicles blocked city streets around the White House as scores of federal law enforcement officers patrolled on foot. Meanwhile, city police patrolled neighborhoods that had seen five straight nights of vandalism, fires, and looting - all of which prompted the president to order a crackdown.

The protests in the District of Columbia were one of dozens that continued to sweep through the nation. One of the largest peaceful protests on Tuesday was in Houston, the hometown of Floyd - whose death in Minneapolis police custody launched waves of marches. Journalists on the scene estimated there were 25,000 marchers, including Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat, some of Floyd's childhood friends, and a group of black cowboys on horseback.

In other cities local officials spent Tuesday dealing with violent incidents from previous evenings. In Atlanta, prosecutors charged six police officers, after they used tasers on two unarmed black college students driving downtown. In Richmond, Virginia, the mayor apologized for a Monday incident, when police had tear-gassed peaceful protesters. And in Philadelphia, the mayor criticized police officers for posing for photos with a group of white vigilantes carrying baseball bats and shovels.

Nationwide, more than 60 million people were under curfews as a result of the protests, in 200 cities and 27 states. The measures are intended to separate peaceful protesters from looters and vandals by requiring the peaceful protesters to have their say in daylight and go home. At least 17,000 National Guard troops have been activated to deal with the protests.

And still, the protests kept growing. In Milwaukee, thousands marched six miles in early summer heat. People knelt on the cobblestone streets of Nantucket, marched in Morgantown, West Virginia, and crowded around police headquarters in El Paso.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Mark Esper asked state National Guards to send in some of their troops as well, to supplement the presence of local and federal police and the District National Guard. Maryland sent 116 National Guardsmen to the District on Tuesday, according to a spokesman for Gov. Larry Hogan. 

District Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said she had not requested any help from outside the city.

At about 4:40 p.m., a line of several dozen officers on camouflage and shields that read "military police" assembled about 20 feet away from the tall, metal fence on the East side of Lafayette Square. Some officers wore N95 masks underneath their face shields and carried batons.

The crowd of hundreds booed and hissed, before breaking out into chants against the president that were heard across the block.

Chase Ingram and Naomi Spates arrived just as the armed officers formed a line, and Ingram lifted Spates by the waist so she could see over the rows of people. It was the first time the pair had attended the protest.

"We couldn't just sit home and do nothing," Spates said.

"After we saw what happened - police shooting and arresting and all that - I didn't want to be the person who just sat at home," Ingram said.

Other protesters had similar motivations.

"The reason I came out today is because that happened yesterday," said Brian Norwood, a 49-year-old white man who lives in Southwest Washington. "I am here to be shot with rubber bullets and tear gas."

Local authorities had spent Tuesday bracing for another wave of protests - not just in Washington, where Barr promised an even stronger show of federal force - but in the Virginia and Maryland suburbs outside the Beltway. 

That didn't deter Merianne and Louis de Merode. They had a lot to fear on Friday afternoon as they stood amid a crowd of at least 1,000 north of Lafayette Square.

Merianne, 64, and Louis, 71, had been in near total isolation since the novel coronavirus began spreading several months ago. The Georgetown couple have compromised immune systems and worried - with ample reason - that the virus could be a death sentence for one or both of them.

They hadn't planned to join the teeming crowds in downtown Washington over the last several days. But a few things changed.

They watched the chatter on their neighborhood listserv - affluent Georgetowners decrying the looting that had spread to their neighborhood while saying little about the death of Floyd. And then they saw demonstrators cleared with force before President Trump's photo op yesterday.

"We were not coming down here for four days, because we were frightened it was going to be too compromising for our health," Louis said. "Then things started piling up in our brains and our hearts, and we both decided that we couldn't not do it."

Before nightfall, the situation was tensing up.

Around 4 p.m., protesters were pepper sprayed near the White House. 

As Gary Murray, 15, stood in front of the White House looking at a line of armed police guards, he grew angrier and angrier. He had just recovered from getting his wisdom teeth out and had been reading the headlines about the violent protests and this was his first day he could go out.

It took him just a few minutes of being at the protest to get pepper sprayed. He was with his teacher from Dunbar High School in the District.

"This really hurts my heart," he said. "As a teenager, as the future of this country, this hurts my heart."

Also near the White House, police pulled a woman from her car, sparking a few moments of chaos. Elizabeth Tsehai had been cheering and chanting as she drove her BMW alongside protesters on H Street. The stay-at-home mother, who is originally from Ethiopia, said she decided to come out after seeing the violent clashes last night on the news. She said a secret service agent warned her to stop driving, and she replied, "Arrest me, I can't breathe."

Then two white male officers dragged her out of her car, which was still running, and pinned her onto the ground. Protesters swarmed around them as the officers pulled Tsehai behind the black chain link fence, demanding to know why she was being taken away.

"She said 'I'm not resisting,' " said protester Haley Sanders, who watched the interaction and was one of dozens of protesters who gathered around Tsehai's car to protect it, and her belongings, after she was taken away.

Tsehai was pulled behind a fence, which protesters started banging against before police deployed spray sending them fleeing.

As tension built, people of all ages were drawn to protest. Pressed up against the black chain-link fence that materialized around Lafayette Square overnight, three high school boys chanted along with the crowd, "Hey, hey, ho, ho! These racist cops have got to go!"

Parents were moved to bring their children - including one couple who brought a baby. Arwa Shobaki and Nidal Betare brought their 6-year-old daughter. They were watching CNN footage of peaceful protesters getting struck with pepper balls outside the White House on Monday when they decided to bring her.

"Trump is obviously trying to scare people," said mom Arwa Shobaki, 42. "We wanted to show her he put up a fence where people used to walk free."

Three hours before curfew - the second night of curfew beginning at 7 p.m. - hundreds of protesters split off from Lafayette Square and marched up 14th Street NW past armored military vehicles and soldiers in fatigues that lined the road.

City bus drivers cheered and honked as protesters walked by. Drivers leaned out of car windows with raised fists.

One woman shouted, "Thank you!"

The demonstration had brought traffic to a standstill at one point. 

A Metro worker in a yellow reflective clapped as the group walked on, past boarded up restaurants and shuttered shops, chanting "Black lives matter" and "No justice, no peace!"

"That's right," she yelled. "This is DC, baby!"