Get all our news and commentary in your inbox at 6 a.m. ET. email Three Fixes to Prevent Another Battle of Lafayette Square A year after federal forces violently cleared the park near the White House, the legal loopholes that militarized D.C. remain wide open. One year ago, a mix of soldiers and federal law enforcement, wielding tear gas and shooting rubber bullets, cleared a crowd of people lawfully protesting police brutality after the murder of George Floyd from Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Square. Then-President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr had orchestrated the operation so the president could pose for a photoshoot at St. John’s Episcopal Church. At the same time, thousands of Guardsmen from eleven states deployed into Washington at Trump’s invitation, over the objections of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.