A foreign dictator seems to have ordered his goons to attack Americans on American soil.
The protesters were no where close to Turkish President Erdoğan at the time he appears to have given his guards the go ahead to assault a crowd gathered across the street from the Turkish embassy.
For those who cannot watch, the video shows a body guard talking to Erdoğan, who is sitting in the backseat of the car. At the end of the conversation, the guard signals to the rest of the security complement to attack. Violence immediately ensues.
According to the New York Times:
Eleven people were injured, including a police officer, and nine were taken to a hospital, the Metropolitan Police chief, Peter Newsham, said at a news conference on Wednesday. Two Secret Service agents were also assaulted in the melee, according to a federal law enforcement official.
The State Department condemned the attack as an assault on free speech and warned Turkey that the action would not be tolerated. “We are communicating our concern to the Turkish government in the strongest possible terms,” said Heather Nauert, a State Department spokeswoman.
Turkey has a different story of how events unfolded, of course:
The Turkish embassy released a statement late Wednesday that contradicted United States officials and video evidence and blamed the demonstrators, who, it said, had been “aggressively provoking Turkish-American citizens who had peacefully assembled to greet the president.” The president’s supporters and security forces were reacting in self-defense, the statement said.