A bizarre photo shoot at Donald Trump’s botched Reflecting Pool took a serious turn after three people were arrested for accidentally leaving one of the props behind.
It happened to be a sex toy.
Video footage shows National Guards detaining the group on Wednesday night, in the latest sign authorities are cracking down on people at the iconic landmark after it became a national embarrassment for the president.
Speaking to the Daily Beast on Thursday after they were released, the group said they had gone to the pool inspired by a protest trend that has taken place in cities such as Los Angeles, Portland and Chicago, where demonstrators stage tongue-in-cheek photo shoots with sex toys carrying political messages.
“Sometimes you have to fight absurdity with absurdity,” said Rook T Winchester, who was detained along with his friends Cecilia Rae and Amy Zellmer.
“At the end of it, even the Park Police were laughing about it,” added Rae.
“They literally were laughing, and asking, ‘Where did you get all these dildos?’ They thought that it was ridiculous.”
The group’s lighthearted activities quickly came to an end when National Guard members approached them at the Reflecting Pool at around 11 p.m. on Wednesday.
They were detained for about an hour and then given a citation. The alleged offense? “Failing to use a receptacle” after one of the dildos was left in the fence now surrounding the Reflecting Pool. They insist it was an accident.
Video of the incident shows Winchester being arrested by a guardsman at the Lincoln Memorial side of the pool.
“Can I ask what I’m being detained for?” he is heard saying.
“For vandalizing government property,” the guard says.
He then points to Rae and says, “she unzipped the bag and you put it on the fence as well”–referring to the sex toy.
“No I didn’t,” she replies.
The guardsman then points to Zellmer and tells his colleague, “Detain her,” while he proceeds to detain Rae.
The incident is the latest sign that authorities have dramatically ramped up security around the Reflecting Pool, which became an unlikely political flashpoint after Trump ordered a multimillion-dollar overhaul that quickly ran into problems.
On Thursday, U.S. Olympian canoeist David Hearn was indicted by a grand jury for destruction of property in connection with willfully damaging sealant in the pool.
He had previously received a citation, which is a lesser misdemeanor set of charges, but now faces a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted.
Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said National Park Service employees saw the 67-year-old “forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom liner” of the pool with both hands during a June 19 incident.
However, his legal team–Norm Eisen, co-founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, and Mary Dohrmann, senior counsel at Washington Litigation Group– insisted he was innocent and that the indictment “reflects the administration’s effort to shift blame for their own failures.”
“These charges are outrageous and should be alarming to every American,” they said in a statement.
“On the eve of Independence Day, Americans should be deeply concerned by the misuse of government power against an ordinary citizen based on a concocted narrative.”
Zellmer agreed that law enforcement–including the National Guard, which has been deployed in D.C. since last August–was overreaching. In addition to the citation, the group has also been issued with federal vandalism charges and is expected to appear in court at a later date.
“They are coming after people that are not criminals, that are not dangerous, and yet all of the people in the Epstein files are running loose and wild,” she said.
The U.S. Park Police did not respond to the Daily Beast in time for publication.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, meters away from the steps where Martin Luther King gave his iconic 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, was meant to be renovated ahead of this weekend’s Independence Day festivities.
But the $14 million refurbishment, which Trump gave at an inflated rate to a contractor he knew, soon became beset with issues involving algae and peeling paint shortly after it reopened last month.
It is now fenced off to the public as the administration attempts to fix it. More CCTV cameras have also been installed around the pool and there is a heavy presence of guards and park police roaming the area.
“It does not feel patriotic at all anymore,” Rae said. “It doesn’t feel like America at all.”
