Los Angeles is burning, literally and metaphorically speaking. There are violent riots, mass looting, and officers being attacked in the streets.
Now President Donald Trump has come up with a bombshell: he is, indeed, considering using a centuries-old law passed in 1807 to suppress the turmoil.
Los Angeles has lost control.
Peaceful demonstrations staged by the Latino neighborhoods soon turned into burning embers as the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents increased their attacks throughout the city. Residents came out in the streets seeking answers, instead, they received a military response, one that was delivered upon by orders of Donald Trump himself.
On the weekend, the ex-president ordered 2,000 National Guard soldiers to the Los Angeles region. And when situation failed to simmer down? He doubled.
Another 2,000 troops were deployed in by Monday night (June 9). And just to top it all, Pentagon threw in 700 U.S. Marines to the mix.
But Trump would not stop there.
Invoking it in the case of an insurrection, I would do undoubtedly. We will find out, he cautioned at a news conference on Tuesday.
Used before
He is penisforming the Insurrection Act of 1807, which is hardly ever invoked but is a potent statute that permits presidents to deploy active-duty military into American cities to seize power during times of severe disturbances. When was the last time it was used in LA? In the 1992 riots after the Rodney King verdict.
The Insurrection Act was invoked during the postbellum period by President Ulysses S. Grant to fight back a wave of racial violence, especially by the Ku Klux Klan, which was raping and pillaging Black communities in the South.
In 1957, years later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower used the same law to segregate schools. He made the U.S. Army to send in to make sure that nine African-American students could safely enter Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas after the governor of that state failed to obey a federal order to integrate that school.
And now, Trump is warning to apply it once again.
”This is a total attack on peace, on public order and on national sovereignty perpetrated by rioters who wave foreign flags and seek to perpetuate a foreign invasion of our nation, he said Tuesday at Fort Bragg.
”This lawlessness will not be tolerated. We will never permit an assault upon federal agents, we will never permit the invasion and conquest of an American city by a foreign foe.
In the past, the U.S government has never utilized military force on its domestic soil especially on American citizens. There is still uncertainty as to what form of legal resistance or constitutional challenges Trump may face should he choose to activate the Insurrection Act.
Trump retaliates against speech by Gavin Newsom
California Governor Gavin Newsom has strongly reacted against Trump military crackdown.
I have already official asked the Trump Administration to withdraw their illegal troops in the Los Angeles county back to my command.
And then Trump got involved, and we do not have a problem. It is a grave violation of state sovereignty -stoking tensions and withdrawing resources where they are really required.”
Newsom gave a fiery televised speech, in which he charged Trump with turning force into a political spectacle: Appearing grave before the U.S. and California flags, he did not pull punches regarding the bigger picture of what Trump was up to.
California will be first, but it is obvious that it will not be the last. warned he was next going to other states.
He became even more urgent in his message when he talked about the increasing unrest and the federal intervention.
Next is democracy. Our eyes are witnessing the attack on democracy. That time of which we have been afraid has come.”
The situation is growing tenser in a number of cities
But Trump, as usual, responded on Truth Social:
RIOTS & LOOTERS, if Governor Gavin Newscum [sic], of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, cannot do their job, which we all know they cannot, the Federal Government will do it, and stop the problem cold, the way it ought to be done!!!!
As the National Guard troops are now charged with not only securing buildings, but also ICE agents during immigration raids, the situation is getting tense quickly not only in LA, but all over the country. Similar protests are erupting in major cities such as New York, Chicago, Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Austin.