BREAKING NEWS: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Discusses GWU Protester Arrests Before Testifying To House

7 months ago

Mayor Muriel Bowser and Washington, D.C., officials hold a press briefing after police clear out GWU encampments and arrests.

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Transcript

00:00 and our City Hall. I'm joined by the Chief of Police who you'll hear from shortly,

00:05 Assistant Chief of Police Jeffrey Carroll, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety

00:10 Lindsay Appiah, and the City Administrator Kevin Donohue. I want to

00:14 begin by thanking the Metropolitan Police Department for their efforts over

00:18 the past two weeks to keep students in the campus of GW stay safe. MPD has

00:26 maintained a presence at GW throughout these protests and that presence has

00:32 allowed for an informed and effective response. I also want to thank the

00:38 broader DC community as tensions have escalated on the campuses across our

00:44 country. Our community has been measured with our words and actions and we have

00:48 demonstrated and upheld our values and constitutional responsibilities. I want

00:55 to be clear that our responses to demonstrations is always rooted in

01:00 public safety and constitutional responsibility and the chief and her

01:06 team are the experts in public safety and always have the final word on how

01:12 our resources are deployed. MPD as you know you've heard me say is the best in

01:17 the business at keeping people safe during the exercise of First Amendment

01:24 demonstrations. So with that I'm gonna turn it over to MPD for a statement and

01:28 to take your questions. Chief Smith.

01:33 Thank you Mayor Bowser. Good morning I'm Pamela Smith, Chief of Police of the

01:37 Metropolitan Police Department. Let me first by saying the District of Columbia

01:41 and Metropolitan Police Department support individuals peacefully

01:44 exercising their First Amendment rights. But as the Chief of Police I need to be

01:49 and am always guided by public safety. This space has been no different where I

01:54 have been constantly reviewing information and intelligence to be able

01:58 to make sound decisions about the George Washington University protests based on

02:03 policing and public safety. Since the start of the encampment on GW's campus

02:07 on April 25th the Metropolitan Police Department has been supporting GW in

02:11 assessing and monitoring the First Amendment activities. They began very

02:15 peacefully but over the past few days we began to see an escalation in the

02:20 volatility of the protests at GW. This started last Thursday when a campus, GW

02:26 campus police officer was pushed by protesters and an item was grabbed out

02:30 of the police officer's hand during the performance of her duties. On Monday MPD

02:36 learned of more indicators that the protest was becoming more volatile and

02:40 less stable. This included a simple assault reported to GW police, security

02:46 probing of a GW building, indicators that counter demonstrators were covertly in

02:51 the encampment, and information that protesters from other schools were

02:55 traveling to GW. In addition items that could potentially be used for offensive

03:00 and defensive weapons were being gathered. All of this led to my

03:04 discussion and conclusion that we needed to change our posture. I briefed Mayor

03:09 Bowser on Monday and we began preparing for last night. Our plan included giving

03:14 warnings, multiple warnings, and clear direction to people inside the

03:19 encampment to disperse the area. We allowed protesters ample time to leave

03:23 the area. In total there were six dispersal announcements before our

03:28 officers took action. Many complied and left the encampment area. Those who did

03:32 not comply were arrested. A total of 33 arrests were made this morning for

03:37 charges including unlawful entry, which is often called trespassing in other

03:42 jurisdictions, and an assault on a police officer. As the encampment was being

03:46 cleared additional protesters arrived outside of our perimeter. These

03:50 individuals engaged our officers at 20th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Our

03:55 officers did deploy pepper spray and some of the 33 arrests were made at that

04:00 location. Moving forward MPD will continue to be supportive of

04:04 universities or other private entities who need assistance. Before I close I

04:09 would like to thank the men and women of the Metropolitan Police Department for

04:13 their professionalism this morning and the service that they provided to the

04:17 community over the past 13 days. I'll turn it over to Mayor Bowser now.

04:21 Any questions for the chief?

04:24 If you could just introduce yourself please.

04:29 I said you went through with this specific instance for a mark.

04:34 That's correct.

04:38 After after based on what I just shared with you after the intelligence that

04:47 the information that was shared with us and the series of events that I that I

04:50 just articulated. We made a decision on Monday after other things were also

04:55 revealed to us that was happening inside of the encampment to move forward with

04:59 clearing the encampment this morning.

05:01 We did.

05:06 Yes, sir.

05:08 I know it's early, but have you had time to determine how many of the 33

05:14 arrests are students? They're still being processed at this time. So we do

05:18 not know that. But what I will do, Tom, as soon as we get that information, we

05:21 will share it publicly. Yes, sir. Let me start here and then I'll get with

05:26 you, Peter. Yes, sir.

05:27 What? What happens next?

05:31 Well, as you know, here in the District of Columbia, we allow, um,

05:44 individuals to exercise their First Amendment activity. Um, in this

05:47 particular location where there's private property, we will not allow

05:51 them to encamp in that space anymore. As you know, I think you know that

05:55 we're the best in the business when it comes to crowd management on. We will

05:58 follow our protocols with respect to that.

06:00 I cannot tell you that's the president's decision to determine if

06:08 she will allow protests in other areas of the campus. But as of the area that

06:13 we have now, um, secure, there will be no protest in that area. Peter, very

06:19 quickly.

06:20 You mentioned one appeal arrested or multiple.

06:22 There were for this morning. There were multiple APL arrests. That is correct.

06:29 Inside the quad this morning, there was one arrest for assault on a police

06:33 officer. And then outside of the perimeter around 20th in Pennsylvania

06:37 Avenue, there were other arrests specifically due to assault on the

06:40 police officer.

06:41 No, no, there were 29 arrests inside of 30, actually, with the one that

06:47 assaulted the police officer. But 29 were charged with unlawful entry.

06:51 Three APLs and 29 unlawful. Yeah, something like that. If you're mad,

06:56 mad, mad, don't be mad.

06:57 Sir,

06:59 no serious injuries to any of our officers. We do not determine at this

07:06 time that there were any serious injuries to any anyone within the

07:09 public. Obviously, we did deploy some pepper spray. But other than that, we

07:13 don't have any additional information regarding injuries.

07:15 Citation or citation. Yes, that is right.

07:19 Not being still being processed. There's still being processed. Peter,

07:24 sorry about that. Yes, ma'am.

07:26 W.

07:28 Committee meeting.

07:32 It did not. All the decisions that I've made is based on public safety.

07:40 Are you still speaking today?

07:43 Okay.

07:44 Um, I had the opportunity to speak with Chairman Comer this morning, and he

07:53 expressed his interest in making sure the city and the chief could focus on

07:58 this ongoing operation. I expect that that hearing will be pulled down.

08:03 Yes. Uh, let me get to somebody who hasn't had a chance yet. Yeah.

08:10 Yep. Uh, walk through.

08:12 The gradual escalation of volatility.

08:16 Well,

08:20 those were the elements. You want to go over them again? Okay.

08:25 Sure. Good afternoon. Good morning. I'm Jeffrey Carroll, the executive

08:29 assistant chief, the Metropolitan Police Department. As the mayor and

08:32 Chief Smith indicated over the over the entire encampment period, we've been

08:36 working very closely with the George Washington University Police Department.

08:39 And what we've seen is an escalation that really occurred as moved into

08:43 Monday, with several incidents that occurred being reported to us either

08:46 through the G W University Police Department or from observations that we

08:50 saw ourself. Some of those things include, as the chief mentioned, the

08:54 assault on the G W police officer. They took an item from the police officer,

08:58 and they also assault the officer. We also observe indicators within the

09:02 encampment that would alert us that potentially they're gathering weapons,

09:06 improvised weapons and things like that. That's there. Additionally, we had

09:10 reporting that individuals were probing buildings on campus with the potential

09:14 to try to enter those those locations. And there was actually some individuals

09:18 yesterday on Tuesday that were located inside of a university facility that

09:23 we're not supposed to be there. Eso again, all these different things that

09:26 came together the indicators that we have taken the intelligence that we had

09:29 and also what we learned from other universities. You know, some of these

09:32 indicators continue to raise the concern from the Metropolitan Police

09:37 Department. That's what really caused us to change our posture to ensure that

09:40 we can maintain the safety not only for the demonstrators that are there in

09:44 the encampment, the students at the university, but also the community as

09:47 well.

09:47 Sure. So right now, the George Washington University, they are still

09:56 going through the encampment. The intents are still there, and they're

09:58 working through that to remove them as they are private property. We do know

10:02 there was at least two probing attempts where individuals were seen 111

10:06 instance casing around the university building. In the second instance, as I

10:09 indicated, there were two individuals that were unauthorized that were

10:11 located inside of the university, and that was informed to us by the George

10:15 Washington University Police Department. So again, those were all very concerning

10:18 and indicators, especially what we have observed that has occurred at other

10:22 universities that, you know, necessitated us to take action.

10:30 They'll be charged with the appropriate charges, the unlawful entry charge or

10:33 the assault on the police officer charge, just like any individual here

10:36 in the District of Columbia. If they are eligible for citation release, they

10:39 will be released on that method. If not, they will appear in front of court with

10:43 that. Of course, all those decisions will be made by the United States

10:46 Attorney's Office as those charges are underneath their purview.

10:59 Why not going on Monday when the decision was made? Sure, says a couple

11:02 things that I was I'm not gonna get into specific tactics of how we respond.

11:05 However, as we indicated, we do have to take all the information that we have

11:08 take that into evaluate that. Additionally, we have to make sure that

11:11 we have the appropriate resources, plans in place and coordination before we

11:15 respond and take action for the safety of everyone involved. If you don't have

11:19 the appropriate resources and plans in place, then that's not a good situation.

11:23 That's not some situation we want to put the students in or we want to put

11:25 our police officers in.

11:27 Chief, you talked about counter demonstrators moving into the encampment.

11:30 I just want to be put. That means you brought people that were not

11:33 necessarily on the pro Palestinian side. We're also moving into the encampment

11:37 potentially getting ready to call us more.

11:40 Volatility there. We had received some information that individuals that have

11:45 been in other universities had potentially come to George Washington

11:48 University. There were some postings out there with that. Additionally, we had

11:51 counter protesters, some that came through and were known to be counter

11:54 protesters that were assaulted. That assault was reported to George

11:58 Washington University Police Department, who relayed those that assault to us on

12:01 Monday morning. Additionally, there were messages that were left inside of the

12:06 encampment that alert us that there was covert counter demonstrators that had

12:09 been within that area as well.

12:11 Yes, ma'am.

12:12 Um, it's

12:15 in DC to support other students in protest. Did you have any indication

12:21 that these students that were coming from other campuses

12:24 were outside? We did. The post I'm arresting did have indications that

12:29 students that were in or I shouldn't say students, individuals that were at

12:32 Columbia University were coming to George Washington and may have actually

12:36 already been there.

12:36 Yes, ma'am.

12:38 Number on how many officers

12:42 morning and then also

12:45 moving forward.

12:46 Sure. So obviously we don't talk specific numbers of all sort of

12:51 tactics that we that we get into with that. But obviously again, we evaluate

12:54 what we have, and we try to mitigate risk in the best way we can by

12:57 deployment of resources. Officers using all kinds of information intelligence

13:01 that's out there with that. As far as the deployment pepper spray that was

13:04 done in response to the assault on the police officers that occurred. So it

13:07 was not done to disperse any groups. It was the individual who were assaulting

13:10 the officer and was done to stop that assault and make the arrest related to

13:13 that.

13:14 Yes, I had this. The information I have this time was three individuals that

13:18 were that were there was three uses of pepper spray that were there.

13:21 When you say they were assaulting police officers, they were trying to

13:25 push through that.

13:26 Yes, initially they were trying to push you to break through that barricade

13:31 there to get to the other individuals that had been arrested. And then

13:34 eventually there were some some some punches that were thrown at the

13:36 officers as they were trying to break through there. A Z officers were trying

13:39 to stop that and we began to reinforce the that area there. But again, they

13:43 tried to contain assault to get to those other folks that are earlier been

13:46 arrested.

13:47 We have information. We're not students. These were outside groups that came

13:50 in and education. So right now we the individuals are still being processed.

13:54 So one of the things that we'll look at is once we have the full information

13:57 and confirm their identities, we will coordinate with the university to

13:59 determine if they are students or if they are not students. So we'll have

14:02 information as Chief Smith indicated. We'll release that once we have that.

14:05 How long did the police plan to maintain a presence out there and

14:09 barricade? We saw that there was a barricade.

14:11 Sure. So at this point right now, we're maintaining a presence there is the

14:16 university still has to get equipment in there to remove all the tents and

14:19 the things that are there. The university does have some plans of what

14:21 they're gonna do in that yard area. We're gonna continue to support them

14:24 until those operations are there again. Even after that, we'll continue to

14:27 periodically check in. Obviously, we have a lot of other things that we

14:30 have to do across the city, but we do support our universities and we'll

14:33 continue to be in communication with the chief Tate and the G W University

14:36 Police Department.

14:43 Sure. So again, specific tactics. We have been in conversations, though,

14:47 with not only G W University, but the universities within the national

14:50 capital region, not only the Metropolitan Police Department, but the

14:53 other law enforcement agencies. So obviously, it's one of the things that

14:55 we are continuing to evaluate as we move closer to that time frame.

14:58 I have a question for Mayor Bowser. Have you spoken about today to

15:02 President Ellen Randenburg at G W? I haven't. I haven't. No. You plan on

15:08 speaking with her about everything that's happening over the past couple

15:11 of hours. We're always speaking to. We've been a constant contact with

15:15 G W throughout this process.

15:17 Yes.

15:18 You say earlier that you expected the oversight committee here.

15:23 I expected to be pulled down.

15:27 Calmer

15:31 Congressman Comer indicated that he thought our energy today should be on

15:37 our ongoing operations. I agreed.

15:39 Yes.

15:43 So

15:44 what?

15:45 Israel

15:52 protests that are in support of the Israel side getting more support than

15:58 protests.

15:59 You know, what are your sentiments around that? And how do you go? You

16:06 know, as far as protecting free speech?

16:08 Yes. So MPD's response to First Amendment demonstration is a

16:14 political. It is without regard to one side or the other on its focused on

16:21 public safety.

16:22 Any other questions? All right. Thank you, everybody.

16:30 Okay. Okay. Okay.

16:33 Thank you.

16:34 Yeah.

16:35 Right.

16:37 Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm.

16:41 (upbeat music)

BREAKING NEWS: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Discusses GWU Protester Arrests Before Testifying To House

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