‘A permanent stain on the American story’: Photo of National Guard blocking protestors from Lincoln Memorial goes viral

'A permanent stain on the American story': Photo of National Guard blocking protestors from Lincoln Memorial goes viral 1

Screenshot / Twitter

Remember when President Trump complained that the media treated him worse than any American president — even Lincoln?

The irony came Tuesday as the mass protests following the death of George Floyd entered their fifth consecutive day. In a photo that has gone viral, the National Guard troops positioned themselves on the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial, blocking protesters from entering it.

Some of the pictures also show several law enforcement officials wearing “military police” vests, a day after Trump threatened to deploy the military if states failed to quell the demonstrations.

Twitterati couldn’t shake off the “deeply disturbing” image.

‘Opposite of what the Lincoln Memorial stands for’

As the memorial honors Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, and the nation he fought to preserve during the Civil War, some users voiced how this photo shows exactly the opposite of what it stands for.

Others called it a desecration of our Constitution, and even our right to protest.

A history class for those at the back

One Twitterati recalled that even after massive student-led protests rocked the nation following the Kent State shooting in 1970, protesters were still allowed at the Lincoln Memorial.

The then-president Richard Nixon even went to the site to debate with the protestors.

Some shared a contrasting photo. Ironically, one picture shows Martin Luther King Jr. standing on the steps of Lincoln Memorial in 1963 to give the “I Have a Dream” speech.

While the other photograph from 2020 shows troops keeping the Black Lives Matter supporters out.

The ‘tyranny’ under Trump wasn’t forgotten

Tensions boiled over in Washington on Monday after law enforcement fired pepper bullets at peaceful protestors outside the White House to clear the path for Trump’s photo-op at the St. John’s Episcopal Church.

Since then, people likening Trump to a dictator only got louder.

Some Twitterati even called it a “police state.”

Others noted that the militia’s faces were all covered to prevent accountability.

And then there were brutal burns…

Some people asserted that the military was needed to “protect” the memorial after D.C. monuments were vandalized.

Twitter had a response for that too:

“As if protestors of racial injustice and police brutality are going to enter the Lincoln Memorial to knock our greatest president who ended slavery off his pedestal?”

One Twitter user used sarcasm to congratulate the president for finally getting a crowd that reached the Lincoln Memorial’s steps.

For context, the crowd at Trump’s inauguration ceremony in 2017 was “pretty average” when compared to the 1.8 million that turned up at Obama’s in 2009. The National Park Service even released aerial and ground shots in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

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