Rev. Gini Gerbasi on the scene at St. John's in D.C.

On the scene when D.C. police cleared protestors from St. John's Episcopal Church prior to President Trump walking there.

"So, what I saw was a peaceful protest. And what I had seen all day was people using that space as really a respite, a place for for prayer or to sit there was some shade at one point. And as we got around 615 or 630.

What I began to see was the policethat had previously beendeep into Lafayette Park, beginning to move toward h street, and out of the corner of my eye because I was like, helping wash people's eyes out from having gotten gas or pepper spray or something in them. I literally saw the corner of my eye police beginning to come up, h street on horseback. And I, at that point had gotten work began to work with the blacklivesmatter sort of medical support volunteers, and we were, you know, handing out water and paper towels with with eyewash on it and that sort of thing. And increasingly, we began to see those little tracers of of smoke and and the sounds of acts of explosions which I guess are those flash burning things.

So,I was in complete completely stunned, really, because I never would have imagined that I would look up and literally see the entire line

of police officers, all in this heavy military gear, all black and these shields, literally, pushing and shoving and driving people off of the church patio, like, I looked up and there they were. And I was literally helping wipe away tears in people's eyes and try to attend to them and help them on the ground, and suddenly the police were pushing us back, and the people were dropping to the ground afraid. And they were when they when they hear those flash sounds. They thought they were being shot, and people were running at us and and literally at some point, When I looked up and the police were so close. I had to just grab some things and run. So, I was already. I was.So, so I was already stunned and shocked and deeply, deeply offended that they had taken what had become holy ground and had been holy ground for 200 years. And literally desecrated it turned it into not

a metaphorical battleground but a literal battleground with those officers and those heavy heavily armed and just the aggression and the hostility and the innocent. Protesters driving them off of church property, for whatever reason, at the time I didn't even know why. Though ready desecrated that already turned holy ground into a literal battleground. I could not believe, literally, what people were texting me as I was going back to my car saying is the president really there. And I could still hear the flashbangs and they people were texting me saying he's walking across the park, I could not believe it. I was saying, No, no, that must be sort of stock photos. No, I'm sure that's not happening. I couldn't believe it. And when I realized that people had been hurt and terrified. For a for a political stunt. like offended, hardly begins to describe how I feel, I feel. It was a sacrilege for all people of, of all faiths faces that are grounded in peacefulness and loving compassion reconciliation wholeness healing forgiveness, peace, love, compassion, and to push innocent people out. And people who by the way, were protesting the violent treat their violent treatment by the government was sickening"