American civil rights groups have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump.
Washington, United States:
American civil rights groups filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump on Thursday after security forces fired pepperballs and smoke bombs to rescue peaceful protesters outside the White House.
Law enforcement officials forced the protesters to return before Trump went to the nearby church for a photo op on Monday that divided the United States amid national protests against police brutality.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have accused the president and senior officials of violating the constitutional rights of Black Lives Matters activists and individual protesters.
“The police carried out a coordinated and unprovoked charge in the crowd of protesters and deployed several rounds of chemical irritants, rubber bullets and cannons,” said the ACLU.
St John’s Episcopal Church is across from Lafayette Park, which faces the White House and has been the subject of protests in Washington.
The church was disfigured by graffiti and damaged by fire during demonstrations on Sunday evening.
Trump posed with a Bible outside the building after vowing to send thousands of heavily armed soldiers to stop the riots.
Protesters have taken to the streets across the United States in recent days to express their anger at the murder of African-American George Floyd by Minnesota police.
“The president’s frankly criminal attack on protesters because he disagreed with their views undermines the foundations of our nation’s constitutional order,” said Scott Michelman, legal director of the ACLU.
Attorney General Bill Barr defended the security forces on Thursday and said the protesters’ lifting was not linked to Trump’s going to church.
