Police Spokesperson Suggests They Shouldn’t Have Said No Tear Gas Was Used. Police Chief Seems To Disagree.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Park Police department told Vox in an interview that they shouldn’t have denied using tear gas in a statement earlier this week because it has detracted from the department’s public acknowledgement that they used smoke canisters and pepper balls. A riot-control projectile similar to pepper spray, pepper balls were deployed at a reportedly peaceful protest near the White House on Monday ahead of President Trump’s visit to St. John’s Church, which was partially burned by rioters over the weekend.

“The point is we admitted to using what we used,” Sgt. Eduardo Delgado told the news agency. “I think the term ‘tear gas’ doesn’t even matter anymore. It was a mistake on our part for using ‘tear gas’ because we just assumed people would think CS or CN.”