In 1970, members of the National Guard shot and killed four students protesting the war in Vietnam at Kent State University.
Trump has long speculated about violently deploying the National Guard and even the military against his own people.
In addition, Trump has long peddled baseless conspiracies about “sanctuary cities”, such as Los Angeles.
It is no surprise that in the same places Trump characterises as “disgracing our country”, there has been staunch opposition to his agenda and ideology.
While the situation in Los Angeles is unpredictable, it must be understood in the broader context of the active, violent threat the Trump administration poses to the US.
The reporter was just [expletive] shot by you.
In the midst of a live cross, Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi was reporting on demonstrations in Los Angeles, California, against the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy. In the background, an LAPD officer seemed to be aiming straight at Tomasi as she spoke into the camera, microphone in hand, and struck her in the leg with a rubber bullet.
Nick Stern, a British photojournalist, was reportedly undergoing emergency surgery after being struck by the same “non-lethal” ammunition.
In Los Angeles, things are very unstable. US President Donald Trump wrote a memo characterizing the nonviolent demonstrations against ICE agents’ raids and arrests as “a form of rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States” after they started in the Paramount suburb. Next, he sent out the National Guard.
“Why can’t you just shoot them?”.
This is not the first time the National Guard has been used to put an end to protests in the United States, as many reports have pointed out.
In 1970, four Kent State University students who were protesting the Vietnam War were shot and killed by National Guard members. During demonstrations in Los Angeles in 1992 after four police officers—three of whom were white—were found not guilty of killing Rodney King, a Black man, the National Guard was called in.
For a long time, Trump has voiced his desire to use the military and even the National Guard to brutally attack his own citizens.
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper claimed that Trump asked him, “Can’t you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?” during his first administration, during the height of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
Additionally, Trump has long looked for people who disagree with his radical plan to change the United States and its place in the world. He has labeled them as “un-American,” deserving of scorn and, when he feels it is necessary, violent repression.
He pledged to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country” during the election campaign last year. Even the Washington Post called this portrayal of Trump’s “political enemies” “echoing Mussolini, Hitler.”.
Trump has also long promoted ludicrous conspiracy theories concerning “sanctuary cities,” like Los Angeles. He has described them as places where immigrants have “invaded” and as lawless havens for his political rivals. That is untrue, as anyone who has ever been to these locations can attest.
There has been strong opposition to Trump’s agenda and ideology in the same places he describes as “disgracing our country,” which is not surprising.
In recent weeks, this opposition has centered on the actions of ICE agents specifically. These agents, who have been hiding their identities behind masks, have been arbitrary detaining individuals, including children and US citizens, and removing people from the streets. Additionally, they have detained caregivers, leaving kids unattended.
During the initial Trump administration in America, Adam Serwer wrote in The Atlantic that “the cruelty is the point.”.
The mass deportation program of the Trump administration is intentionally harsh and provocative. The onset of protests was always almost inevitable.
Hundreds or even a few thousand peaceful protesters in a ten million-person city is not a crisis in a democracy. However, creating crises has always worked for Trump and the movement that backs him.
A former adviser referred to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a major designer of the mass deportations program, as “Waffen SS,” and he referred to the protests as “an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States.”. Additionally, Trump referred to demonstrators as “violent, insurrectionist mobs.”.
The presidential memo that deployed the National Guard makes no mention of the precise location of the protests. This suggests it is setting the stage for further escalation, as does the administration’s use of extreme language.
The administration may be making room to use the Insurrection Act and station the National Guard in other locations.
Notwithstanding their rarity, incidents involving the National Guard’s deployment are politically devastating. Even less frequently, as Trump has done in California, the National Guard is called in against the wishes of a state’s democratically elected leader.
a more widespread attack on democracy.
This deployment coincides with a crisis in the broader US democracy. Trump’s long-standing criticism of independent media, which he refers to as “fake news,” is getting worse. There’s a reason why a police officer targeting a journalist on camera during the current protests seemed so at ease.
Additionally, the Trump administration is aggressively targeting independent universities like Columbia and Harvard. Additionally, it weakens the ability of independent courts to uphold the rule of law and targets and undermines judges.
Minority rights are being targeted and undermined by the federal government and its state-based allies under Trump. This includes policing transgender people’s bodies, targeting reproductive rights, and starting the process of repealing the Civil Rights Act.
Right now, Trump is unrestrained. Trump said, “The bar is what I think it is,” in response to a question last night about the threshold for using the Marines against demonstrators.
Recently, columnist Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times had this observation.
Trump and his overtly authoritarian government should be viewed as a failure of our Constitution and its capacity to effectively restrain a destructive and system-threatening force in our political life, not just of our party system or our legal system.
Even though the circumstances in Los Angeles are uncertain, they must be viewed in light of the larger picture of the violent and active threat the Trump administration represents to the United States. The democracy of the United States is in danger as we watch.
