so, who should I believe?
the head of the Park Police?
or
reporters?
In a normal time, I would say the head of the Park Police. Maybe I'd be wrong in saying that, but that's what I'd say.
But these are abnormal times, and for some reason, many agency heads and other spokesmen (and women) for the various agencies of the executive branch of the federal government have had great difficulty telling factual truths rather than fictitious lies during these times.
Also, all the eyewitness accounts that I have read have supported the notion that tear gas and rubber bullets (OK,
pellets) were used on them.
But, like I said, at the heart of it is that law-abiding American citizens were violently evicted from an area in which they were lawfully assembled so that the POTUS--who had been in his bunker for most of the previous 48 hours--could come out and have a photo-op. So, "smoke bombs" or CS or OC, rubber bullets, rubber pellets, flash-bang grenades or oversized firecrackers or nightsticks or pool noodles, it doesn't really matter.