US President Warns Military To End Riots As Police Use Teargas Near White House

By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News

(Worthy News) – U.S. President Donald Trump has visited the 200-year-old church near the White House that was set on fire by protestors over the weekend after warning he may deploy the military to end days of rioting and looting across the nation.

Beginning with James Madison, every person who has held the office of president has attended a service at St. John’s Church. Reporters saw security forces cleared protesters out of the area with tear gas before Trump’s visit. Tear gas canisters could be heard exploding as Trump spoke in the Rose Garden before walking over to the church.

He said he might invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, which permits a president to deploy the military inside the U.S. to deal with civil disorder.

“As we speak, I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults, and the wanton destruction of property.”

Trump delivered Monday’s remarks in the Rose Garden at the White House, realizing that police deployed tear gas and flash bangs to disperse protestors outside. “These are not acts of peaceful protest,” said Trump. “These are acts of domestic terror. The destruction of innocent life and the spilling of innocent blood is an offense to humanity and a crime against God.”

“RIOTS DISGRACE”

He stressed that riots such as in Washington DC were a “disgrace.” Trump made it clear that the curfew would be “strictly enforced.” Any rulebreakers will be arrested, detained, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, he stressed.

He spoke Monday evening after condemning many governors as “weak” and demanding harsher crackdowns on burning and stealing in the aftermath of often violent protests in dozens of cities.

The days of protests were triggered by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in the U.S. city of Minneapolis, where a white police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air.

Several protests turned violent with people looting stores carrying items ranging from groceries to expensive iPhones. They even torched police cars and ignited fires in historic Lafayette Park near the White House in Washington, D.C.

The riots prompted the Secret Service to rush the president sometimes to a secure bunker beneath the White House. The brother of George Floyd’s pleaded for peace in the streets Monday, saying destruction is “not going to bring my brother back at all.”

Thousands of people were detained in the violence.

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