Following protests at Union Station by anti-Israel agitators who desecrated federal property in protest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress, a Park Police union is responding to criticism that only a few arrests were made.
Thousands of Hamas-sympathizing rioters descended on Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, at one point desecrating federal monuments with phrases in support of the terror group responsible for the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, saying, “Hamas is coming.”
Twenty-three people were arrested in the protests, but some have suggested the number should have been higher.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., posted on X: “How many more times are they going to allow leftist degenerates who support terrorism and hate America to vandalize property and attack police? There should have been hundreds of arrests in DC today, not just 23.”
House Republicans replace U.S. flags at Union Station following anti-Israel protests
The Columbus Memorial Fountain at Union Station during an anti-Israel protest on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 24, 2024. (Reuters/Seth Herald)
But the U.S. Park Police Labor Committee is fighting back.
“Our officers on the ground did everything possible to protect life and property. In fact, despite having only 29 officers available to mitigate damage — 29! — with no additional assistance from the Department of the Interior, we processed multiple arrests on charges ranging from assault on a police officer to destruction of government property,” Kenneth Spencer, president of the U.S. Park Police Fraternal Order of Police, said in a statement.
“That’s why it’s so disheartening to hear some members of Congress and members of the media, many of whom describe themselves as ‘champions’ of law enforcement, suggest that officers gave protesters a ‘pass’ or that not enough arrests were made.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone who really cares to understand the problem will see that our officer staffing crisis is at the root of our agency’s mission readiness. A small unit of 29 officers arrested 10 people while being attacked by a mob of thousands. We simply did not have the personnel or resources to carry out a mass arrest operation.”
WATCH: THE MOST DRAMATIC PHOTOS FROM WEDNESDAY’S PRO-HAMAS PROTESTS IN WASHINGTON, DC
An anti-Israel protester sprays graffiti on the Christopher Columbus Memorial Fountain at Union Station on the day of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 24, 2024. (Reuters/Nathan Howard)
At least one protester, whose face was covered, was seen by Fox News carrying what appeared to be the flag of the Hamas terrorist group, while others were heard shouting “Allahu Akbar.”
KAMALA HARRIS REACTS TO ANTI-ISRAEL RIOTS AT DC’S UNION STATION
Anti-Israel protesters burn an effigy depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside Union Station on the day of Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 24, 2024. (Reuters/Nathan Howard)
The White House condemned Wednesday night’s protests, calling the chaos “shameful.”
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“Identifying with evil terrorist organizations like Hamas, burning the American flag, or forcibly removing the American flag and replacing it with another is shameful,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates he said in a comment to Fox News Digital on Wednesday night.
