Park Police contradict the White House's claims that it didn't use tear gas on protesters, admit they were 'incorrect' in saying pepper balls aren't tear gas

• The US Park Police and the president repeatedly insisted this week that federal forces did not use tear gas while clearing a crowd of peaceful protesters outside the White House on Monday evening.
• But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines the pepper balls the USPP used on Monday to disperse the crowd as a form of tear gas.
• Park Police spokesman Sergeant Eduardo Delgado conceded in an interview with Business Insider on Thursday night that the USPP should have said it did not use two specific, common gases found in tear gas: CS and CN.
• "When we were referencing the term tear gas, we were talking about CS or CN," Delgado said, noting that the force was explicitly told not to use CS or CN via USPP radio during the protests on Monday evening.
• "It was just an incorrect term that we used, we should have said we did not use CS or CN."
• Civil rights groups are suing the Trump administration over the force's use of tear gas on Monday's protesters.

The US Park Police and the White House have repeatedly insisted this week that federal forces did not use tear gas while clearing a crowd of peaceful protesters out of Lafayette Park shortly before President Donald Trump's Monday photo-op outside a nearby church.

The Park Police (USPP) released a Tuesday statement saying that it had used "smoke canisters and pepper balls" to disperse the crowd, but did not use tear gas. Trump and his aides repeatedly cited that statement amid widespread and bipartisan condemnation of the violent response.

But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines the pepper compound the USPP used as a form of tear gas. The CDC defines tear gas, also known as a "riot control agent," as "chemical compounds that temporarily make people unable to function by causing irritation to the eyes, mouth, throat, lungs, and skin."

Park Police spokesman Sergeant Eduardo Delgado said in an interview with Business Insider on Thursday night that the USPP should have said it did not use two specific, common gases found in tear gas: CS, also known as compound 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile, and CN, or chloracetophenone.

"When we were referencing the term tear gas, we were talking about CS or CN," Delgado said, noting that the force was explicitly told not to use CS or CN via USPP radio during the protests on Monday evening. "It was just an incorrect term that we used, we should have said we did not use CS or CN."

Delgado said the issue was one of semantics, comparing it to the word "Kleenex" as a substitute for the word "tissue." He added that Park Police had not communicated with the White House about how the government is choosing to define the chemical irritants used on Monday.

Delgado claimed that pepper ball projectiles are "individually directed" and thus more targeted than other forms of tear gas, which are designed for "mass dispersal." And he argued that the smoke canisters used were "more of a distraction than anything else."

While he noted that CS and CN gas have more severe physiological impacts on people, he also said that pepper balls and smoke can also have severe health impacts, particularly for those with underlying health conditions.

Delgado pushed back against concerns that the use of chemical irritants, which cause people to caugh and sneeze, could exacerbate the spread of Covid-19.

"That's a tough argument to say that a gas is an irritant and could affect the Covid more when there are groups of thousands of people walking around with no PPE shoulder to shoulder," he said. "I would venture to say CDC would be more concerned about that then the use of a pepper ball."

Trump and his administration have repeatedly insisted that law enforcement did not use tear gas on the protesters shortly after the president called on states to "dominate" protesters with "overwhelming force" in his Monday evening address. And the White House accused the press of lying about the gassing.

"Media Falsely Claimed Violent Riots Were Peaceful And That Tear Gas Was Used Against Rioters," Trump tweeted on Tuesday night, sharing a story by the right-wing Federalist publication. "Fake News is hurting our Country so badly."

The Trump campaign explicitly contradicted the CDC's definition of tear gas in a statement to Business Insider earlier this week, arguing that "pepper pellets and smoke are not tear gas."

"The Park Police said clearly that neither they, nor their law enforcement partners, used tear gas," said Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaign's communications director. "Pepper pellets and smoke are not tear gas."

The White House declined to comment and the Trump campaign did not immediately responded to Business Insider's request for comment on Friday.

But video footage, photographs, and dozens of witness accounts from protesters and reporters on the ground say otherwise. The US Park Police later acknowledged they deployed "smoke canisters" and "pepper balls" as they advanced on the crowd, forcing hundreds of protesters and bystanders out of the square.

—Cameron Peters (@jcameronpeters) June 1, 2020

On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups filed a lawsuit on behalf of Black Lives Matters DC against the Trump administration over the use of tear gas against peaceful protesters outside the White House on Monday.

Civil and human rights groups have long objected to the government's use of tear gas against protesters, in part because of the indiscriminate nature of the weapon. Rather than targeting specific people, the gas hurts everyone it touches, including media, children, and bystanders.

The health impacts from contact with tear gas can be permanent and severe. The CDC warns that tear gas "may lead to long-term effects such as eye problems including scarring, glaucoma, and cataracts, and may possibly cause breathing problems such as asthma." The projectiles used to transport the irritant can maim and kill people hit by them.