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Trump deploys US military to
restore order in Washington,
DC & says he'll do the same
EVERYWHERE if local govts
fail
RT,
1 June, 2020
In a surprise address to the nation, US President Trump announced he was deploying the military to stop the unrest in Washington, DC and said he would intervene anywhere local authorities fail to restore order after days of riots.
1 June, 2020
In a surprise address to the nation, US President Trump announced he was deploying the military to stop the unrest in Washington, DC and said he would intervene anywhere local authorities fail to restore order after days of riots.
Trump appeared in the White House Rose Garden around 6:30 pm on Monday, declaring that the US has been gripped by “domestic terror” of “professional anarchists and violent mobs” who drowned out the “righteous cries of peaceful protests” over the death of George Floyd, an African-American man killed by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota last Monday.
All of the country was justly outraged by Floyd’s “brutal” death, Trump said, but the protests since then have turned to violence. In Washington, DC alone, he said, the rioters vandalized the Lincoln Memorial and the WWII monument, and set ablaze a historic church near the White House.
“These are not acts of peaceful protest, these are acts of domestic terror,” he said.
Pledging to end the “riots and lawlessness” immediately, Trump said he “strongly recommended” to every state governor to deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers to “dominate” the streets and shut down riots.
If they fail to do so, he added, “I will deploy the US military and quickly solve the problem for them.”
He also revealed that the “heavily armed” US troops have already been dispatched to the streets of Washington, DC to “stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults and wanton destruction of property.”
Organizers of the “terror,” which he described as “Antifa and others,” will face severe criminal penalties, including prison terms.
Right before he appeared, loud explosions could be heard near the White House. A feed from the protest outside showed mounted police dispersing masked demonstrators, as flash-bang grenades and tear gas went off.
Though the officers caught on video kneeling on Floyd’s neck until he died were quickly fired, and one of them was charged with murder, protests over the incident escalated into riots in Minneapolis last Wednesday. They then spread to nearby St. Paul and then to 75 other major cities across the US over the weekend.
A number of armored military vehicles and personnel carriers were seen near the White House on Monday evening in videos posted to social media, a little more than an hour before the city’s new 7pm curfew is set to go into effect.
The entire DC National Guard – some 1,700 troops – was called into the nation’s capital late on Sunday to assist police in holding off crowds of angry demonstrators voicing outrage over the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. The Guard’s presence in the streets is expected to be heavier on Monday, however, as security forces on previous nights have struggled to control the unruly crowds – at one point forcing the White House to be placed on lockdown.
As unrest over police brutality roils city after city – often boiling over into arson, looting and clashes with law enforcement – US President Donald Trump is considering invoking the Insurrection Act, a 19th century law that would allow him to deploy active-duty troops to put down chaos and rioting, according to NBC News. The law was last invoked during 1992’s riots in Los Angeles.
In a surprise address to the nation, Trump said he would deploy the military to stop the unrest in DC and said he would intervene elsewhere if local authorities fail to restore order after days of riots. By all indications he has yet to invoke the Insurrection Act, however.
Active-duty soldiers and military police have already been moved to an area outside DC and placed on “heightened alert status,” but have not yet been deployed, Reuters reported, citing a senior defense officia
The president has expressed frustration with state governors for not taking a more aggressive approach, insisting they had to “dominate” the rioters, adding “You’ve got to arrest people, you have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you’ll never see this stuff again.”
As of Monday, over 17,000 National Guard troops have been deployed to at least 23 states and DC to manage the turmoil, more than tripling their presence since the day prior as countless cities also introduce curfew orders. Rioting kicked off last week in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, igniting protests and unrest in at least 75 other locations around the country since.
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