Man arrested near Trump’s reflecting pool plans to fight obscenity charge

A Washington DC resident arrested this week near the National Mall’s reflecting pool told the Guardian he planned to fight the charges, as Donald Trump continues to blame vandals for the botched renovation of the pool. After the Trump administration spent $14.2m renovating thebody of water in front of the Lincoln Memorial to turn it “American flag” blue in time for the US’s 250th birthday next month, the pool has been beset with algae blooms and peeling paint. Trump has claimed, without evidence, that the pool had been slashed with a knife. Earlier this week, Trump said on social media that six people had been arrested “for the damage they did to our country’s now beautiful Reflecting Pool”. A DC resident seen on video being dragged away from the reflecting pool in handcuffs on Monday is Christian Miles, a freelance video editor who told the Guardian on Tuesday that he was charged with violating a federal obscenity law for berating a group of Oklahoma state troopers guarding the reflecting pool. Miles, a former US navy submariner, has made it a personal project in recent months to “document the creeping police state” since Trump’s federal takeover of policing in Washington DC by filming himself confronting, and often berating , federal troops and officer around the city. …