David Frum @davidfrum 24m
Just returned from a foot tour of White House area. Huge police presence. Security perimeter north of the White House has been extended to I Street - and extended in a way that seems almost intentionally menacing: shoulder to shoulder riot police.
Here, for example, is 16th & Eye Street (photo at link)
Vermont Avenue and Eye Street (photo at link)
Police are carrying guns that fire paint pellets or tear gas (sorry - pepper balls! crucial!)
Even at 10 am, it was already warming into a hot day in DC. Police are standing in beating sun, drawn into ready formation, facing ... nobody and nothing in particular.
We walked south on 15th Street. (Good news, lobbyists: Joe's Stone Crab is safe.) - (photo at link)
(To reader who asked: yes, the police are from Bureau of Prisons. They carried BOP gear and insignia. And - no disrespect - they didn't have soldierly bearing.)
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1268193506750799875