We reported that the Attorney General Bill Barr and the federal government are not messing around when it comes to going after the “antigovernment extremists” trying to cause chaos in the country with rioting, attacking police and pulling down statues. They’ve set up a specific task force to deal with it and have been using the 35 terrorist task forces across the country to investigate.
Even where the local governments, virtually all of them Democratic, are weak, the federal government appears to be picking up the slack. According to Barr, they have 500 investigations in the hopper right now.
They just got a big set of arrests that is going to make President Donald Trump happy, they just arrested four of the rioters involved in the action to try to pull down the statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C.
According to a statement from the FBI, Lee Michael Cantrell, 47, of Virginia; Connor Matthew Judd, 20, of Washington, D.C.; Ryan Lane, 37, of Maryland; and Graham Lloyd, 37, of Maine, were charged by criminal complaint yesterday with destruction of federal property for damaging and attempting to tear down the statue.
The complaint further alleges that Cantrell was captured on video attempting to pry the statue off its base with a wooden board and trying to pull the statue down with the aid of a yellow strap. The complaint alleges that Judd is seen on video trying to pull down the statue, and that Lane is seen on video affixing a rope to one part of the statue and then pulling on another rope tied to the statue. The complaint also alleges that video of the incident shows Lloyd as he breaks off and destroys the wheels of cannons located at the base of the statue. Lloyd is also captured on video pulling on ropes in an effort to topple the statue, and handing a hammer to an unidentified individual involved in the incident.
The four men were reportedly arrested without incident.
“The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia will not stand idly by and allow our national monuments to be vandalized and destroyed. This Office remains steadfast in its commitment to protect the sacred First Amendment right of individuals to peacefully protest, but these charges should serve as a warning to those who choose to desecrate the statues and monuments that adorn our nation’s capital: your violent behavior and criminal conduct will not be tolerated,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Michael R. Sherwin.
President Donald Trump had tweeted out the wanted pics of some of the folks involved in the action and there are likely more arrests coming as there were more folks involved.
FBI seeks info on 15 connected to vandalization of Andrew Jackson statue, Trump tweets poster | Just The News https://t.co/m0JgTM2hov
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) June 27, 2020
Protestors attach a chain to the statue of U.S. President Andrew Jackson in the middle of Lafayette Park in front of the White House in an attempt to pull it down as someone throws a roll of toilet paper at the statue. Photo by @tombrennerphoto pic.twitter.com/hkKGkGcpfY
— corinne_perkins (@corinne_perkins) June 23, 2020
You can see the board allegedly being used by Cantrell trying to pry off the statue in this video.
Anti-racism protesters tried to pull down a monument of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, in a park near the White House before police intervened. https://t.co/oy3z685A61 pic.twitter.com/jXptDZCHKW
— ABC News (@ABC) June 23, 2020
“Antiracism protesters” = rioters breaking the law.
Good job, Barr and company!
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