WASHINGTON \u2014 Law enforcement officials on Sunday removed a peace vigil that had stood outside the White House for more than four decades after President Donald Trump ordered it to be taken down as part of the clearing of homeless encampments in the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n
Philipos Melaku-Bello, a volunteer who has manned the vigil for years, told The Associated Press that the Park Police removed it early Sunday morning. He said officials justified the removal by mislabeling the memorial as a shelter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe difference between an encampment and a vigil is that an encampment is where homeless people live,\u201d Melaku-Bello said. \u201cAs you can see, I don\u2019t have a bed. I have signs and it is covered by the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House confirmed the removal, telling AP in a statement that the vigil was a \u201chazard to those visiting the White House and the surrounding areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taking down the vigil is the latest in a series of actions the Trump administration has ordered as part of its federal takeover of policing in the city, which began last month. The White House has defended the intervention as needed to fulfill Trump\u2019s executive order on the \u201cbeautification\u201d of D.C.<\/p>\n
Melaku-Bello said he\u2019s in touch with attorneys about what he sees as a civil rights violation. \u201cThey\u2019re choosing to call a place that is not an encampment an encampment just to fit what is in Trump\u2019s agenda of removing the encampments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The vigil was started in 1981 by activist William Thomas to promote nuclear disarmament and an end to global conflicts. It is believed to be the longest continuous anti-war protest in U.S. history. When Thomas died in 2009, other protesters like Melaku-Bello manned the tiny tent and the banner, which read \u201cLive by the bomb, die by the bomb,\u201d around the clock to avoid it being dismantled by authorities.<\/p>\n
The small but persistent act of protest was brought to Trump\u2019s attention during an event at the While House on Friday.<\/p>\n
Brian Glenn, a correspondent for the conservative network Real America\u2019s Voice, told Trump the blue tent was an \u201ceyesore\u201d for those who come to the White House.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust out front of the White House is a blue tent that originally was put there to be an anti-nuclear tent for nuclear arms,\u201d Glenn said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of morphed into more of an anti-American, sometimes anti-Trump at many times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump, who said he was not aware of it, told his staff: \u201cTake it down. Take it down today, right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Melaku-Bello said that Glenn spread misinformation when he told the president that the tent had rats and \u201ccould be a national security risk\u201d because people could hide weapons in there.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo weapons were found,\u201d he told AP. He said that it was rat-infested. Not a single rat came out as they took down the cinder blocks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Law enforcement officials on Sunday removed a peace vigil that had stood outside the White House…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":209113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[50,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-209112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115166325754780943","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}