Tag: Trump wants to use American military against American citizens

National Guard investigating helicopter use on D.C. protesters

The Guard said Wednesday that it is looking into the use of a medical evacuation helicopter as part of its response to civil unrest in D.C.

The commanding general of the District of Columbia National Guard has ordered an investigation into the use of helicopters flying low over protesters on Monday, the branch announced.

The probe is in response to reports and videos of National Guard helicoptershovering over crowds, blowing dust and falling branches. One Army helicopter reportedly snapped a tree that nearly hit several people during a pass over protesters.

The Guard said Wednesday that it is looking into the use of a medical evacuation helicopter as part of its response to civil unrest in the nation’s capital. Continue reading.

McRaven backs Mattis, Mullen: Clearing peaceful protesters for a photo op is not ‘morally right’

Retired Adm. William McRaven said there is “nothing morally right” about clearing peaceful protesters amid national unrest following George Floyd’s death in police custody.

“Trust me, every man and woman in uniform recognizes that we are all Americans and that the last thing they want to do as military men and women is to stand in the way of a peaceful protest,” McRaven, who oversaw the Navy SEAL raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2011, said in an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday.

“You’re not going to use, whether it’s the military, or the National Guard, or law enforcement, to clear peaceful American citizens for the president of the United States to do a photo op,” McRaven said. “There is nothing morally right about that.” Continue reading.

Mattis’s Trump broadside underscores military tensions

The Hill logoFormer Defense Secretary James Mattis’s stunning public criticism of President Trump is underscoring growing fears in the military that the president is compromising the integrity of the U.S. Armed Forces by treating to use them against protesters.

Trump has urged governors to deploy National Guard troops to “dominate the streets” and stop violent demonstrations, saying he would dispatch U.S. military forces to states and cities that do not meet his demands.

On Monday, streets near the White House were forcibly cleared of peaceful protesters by federal law enforcement officers. That night, a National Guard Lakota helicopter flew low over protesters in the city in a show of force previously unthinkable in a U.S. city. Continue reading.

Civil rights groups sue Trump over assault on peaceful protesters near White House

Protesters were forcefully removed from a park near the White House before Trump walked to a nearby church to take a photo

The American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups are suing Donald Trump, William Barr and other federal officials over the assault on peaceful protesters near the White House on Monday, to allow the president to hold a photo op at a historic church.

According to a release from the ACLU of the District of Columbia, the lawsuit filed on behalf of Black Lives Matter DC and individual protesters accuses Trump and the other officials are accused of “violating their constitutional rights and engaging in an unlawful conspiracy to violate those rights”.

The Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the law firm of Arnold & Porter also filed the suit. Continue reading.

Murkowski, Mattis criticism ratchets up pressure on GOP over Trump

The Hill logoCriticism of President Trump from former Defense Secretary James Mattisand Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is ratcheting up pressure on other Republicans to push back on the president’s handling of nationwide civil unrest.

Mattis, who is as close as anyone to being universally respected on Capitol Hill, called out Trump on Wednesday for what he called the president’s lack of a “mature leadership” and accused him for intentionally trying to divide the nation.

Murkowski said she thought Mattis’s words were “true and honest and necessary and overdue” and suggested that it might embolden other Republicans who privately disagree with the president’s often controversial tone and conduct to speak out. Continue reading.

Retired military brass sound the alarm about the peril Trump poses to democracy

AlterNet logoRetired four-star Marine General John Allen has seen enough. In a op-ed for Foreign Policy, Allen tore into Donald Trump and his orders to attack American citizens in front of the White House. Allen said he fears we are “witnessing the beginning of the end of American democracy.”

In a three-part breakdown of how Trump has failed this moment and the nation, (Ret.) Gen. Allen specifically called out this administration singling out antifa—a leaderless movement that is, by definition, anti-fascist—as a terrorist group while ignoring the white supremacists who have been proven to be inciting violence at some of these protests. Allen said: “Far more damage to the United States has come from these terrorists—fascists, Klansmen, and neo-Nazis, all feeling newly empowered today—than those who have opposed them.”

For the record, the FBI found “no intelligence linking Antifa to violence at the Black Lives Matter protests.” Continue reading.

I Cannot Remain Silent

Our fellow citizens are not the enemy, and must never become so.

It sickened me yesterday to see security personnel—including members of the National Guard—forcibly and violently clear a path through Lafayette Square to accommodate the president’s visit outside St. John’s Church. I have to date been reticent to speak out on issues surrounding President Trump’s leadership, but we are at an inflection point, and the events of the past few weeks have made it impossible to remain silent.

Whatever Trump’s goal in conducting his visit, he laid bare his disdain for the rights of peaceful protest in this country, gave succor to the leaders of other countries who take comfort in our domestic strife, and risked further politicizing the men and women of our armed forces.

There was little good in the stunt. Continue reading.

A dangerous new factor in an uneasy moment: Unidentified law enforcement officers

Washington Post logoAfter more than a week of unrest, tension in a number of major U.S. cities has eased. The vandalism and looting that had often used large, peaceful protests as cover have faded; the eruption of violence at protests appears to be less common. The Associated Press reports that active-duty members of the military who were moved into Washington to help keep order would be moved back out, though that decision was later reversed.

But it wasn’t only components of the Defense Department that had been brought to the nation’s capital to help with the “domination” that President Trump sought to display in the wake of the turmoil. Washington residents have also been confronted with a number of other heavily armed law enforcement officers who share an unexpected characteristic: Neither their affiliation nor their personal identities are discernible.

On Tuesday, Mother Jones reporter Dan Friedman encountered these individuals, who gave no more specific identification than that they were associated with the Justice Department. Continue reading.