President Donald Trump sent the the National Guard to violently target American citizens who have been protesting the removal of immigrants from the city by Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
Federal agents violently fired flash-bang grenades and tear gas toward crowds protesting the arrests of dozens of migrants in a city with a large Latino population.
Speaking on MSNBC‘s “The Weekend,” former DHS chief of staff Miles Taylor said Trump is using the protests in Los Angles as an excuse to turn U.S. forces on Americans:
What is happening in Los Angeles is not a rational response to what they’re seeing on the ground. This is indeed, in my view, pre-planned to be able to give the president justification to invoke the Insurrection Act and it made sense that where they decided to do these raids was Los Angeles.
I very firmly believe in the White House they suspected the response would be protests, and then they could use the protests as a response to use the Insurrection Act.
But this is much, much bigger than Los Angeles. I’m telling you, from the first term, if Donald Trump had gotten the authority to use the military on U.S. soil to enforce domestic law, it was going to go much beyond enforcement of immigration law. That was our fear and we are seeing potentially the early innings of that play out in real-time
California Governor Gavin Newsom said Trump’s decison was “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions,” reports AFP.
Federal authorities “want a spectacle. Don’t give them one. Never use violence. Speak out peacefully,” Newsom said on Twitter/X.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said some city residents were “feeling fear” on Twitter: “Everyone has the right to peacefully protest, but let me be clear: violence and destruction are unacceptable, and those responsible will be held accountable.”
Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened American citizens with military forces on social media: “If violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert.”
However, Law professor Jessica Levinson said there ar legal restriction on the use of the US military as a domestic policing force in the absence of an insurrection: “The National Guard will be able to do (no) more than provide logistical (and) personnel support.”
(Sources: AFP, MSNBC via YouTube)