After a couple of weeks of relative calm have come to an end in Washington DC, as protesters once again began to rage on the streets of our capital.
The protests, which began over a month ago after the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police department, were fiery, raucous affairs at the start. Much of the chaos then was being attributed to a number of extremist groups and their agent provocateurs. Once these rabble rousers were exposed, they seemed to go back into hiding for several days…but appear to now be back with a vengeance.
Protesters on Monday tried toppling a statue of Andrew Jackson near the White House, while sealing off an area in an act of defiance similar to events in Seattle by declaring off-limits an area dubbed the “Black House Autonomous Zone,” or “BHAZ.”
Police intervened as chants of “Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Andrew Jackson’s got to go” were heard while a rope was put around the bust of the seventh president riding a horse, the Washington Post reported. Hundreds of protesters locked arms around the statue before police officers removed the crowd in a chaotic scene.
U.S. Park and D.C. police used a chemical irritant to disperse the crowd and officers were hit with objects. Jackson, who has faced ire in the present day for his severe treatment of Native Americans, was the latest historical figure targeted by protesters demanding monuments and memorials to those with racist pasts be taken down.
Video of the incident was raucous, to say the least:
Rioters in Lafayette Square in Washington DC are trying to topple over a statue of President Andrew Jackson
pic.twitter.com/p3hFCLx9P8— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 23, 2020
Police soon moved in to secure the area, and Andrew Jackson’s visage is still standing…for now.
