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For more than four decades, a small vigil outside the White House stood as around-the-clock symbol
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of America's anti-nuclear movement. On Sunday, it was torn down on the orders of President Donald
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Trump. Federal officers moved in just after sunrise, tearing down the tarp and makeshift
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supports that shielded demonstrators in Lafayette Square. The White House called it a safety hazard
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part of the president's push to beautify Washington. One volunteer said the vigil was wrongly classified as a homeless encampment
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He told the AP he had no bed at the site, only signs, and insisted it was protected under the First Amendment
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Video cited by The Washington Post shows officers shaking out the tarp and leaving protest material strewn on the ground
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One volunteer was briefly cuffed after refusing to move, though police told him the vigil itself could continue without the shelter
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The peace vigil began in 1981 as a call for nuclear disarmament
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and grew into the longest-running anti-war protests in U.S. history. Ellen Thomas, the founder's widow, told The Post no president before Trump had directly ordered its removal
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Separately, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton defended the protest, calling the vigil an expression of free speech, even if some found it unsightly
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By Sunday afternoon, volunteers had reassembled their banners. Hundreds of supporters stopped by, proof that even without its tarp, the vigil endures
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