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National Guard

Community Defense Against The Military Occupation Of Our Cities

On August 11, the Trump administration announced the deployment of national guard troops and the federal takeover of the police department in Washington, DC. This follows military troops being deployed to Los Angeles and ICE agents snatching people throughout the country. Last week, the Pentagon also announced the creation of a 600-member national guard unit ready to deploy to cities within an hour when there are protests. Clearing the FOG speaks with Erica Caines of the Black Alliance for Peace about the checkpoints and patrols in DC, how this fits into the long history of policing mainly black and brown communities and how people are organizing community self-defense and mutual aid. She also discusses the demand to disqualify the United States and Israel from FIFA and the Olympic games.

DC Stands Tall Against Trump’s Racist Police Invasion

Washington, DC – On the evening of Wednesday August 13, the DC Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (DCAARPR) organized a demonstration in Ward 7, a primarily Black ward, and one of the most overpoliced sections of the city. As organizers set up their table and speakers, a police agent in an unmarked car across the street tried to discreetly photograph attendees and license plates. As soon as he was approached by organizers with cameras, he covered his face and sped off. This encounter foreshadowed a pattern that would be repeated throughout the night of police fleeing when confronted by the people. The demonstration was called in response to President Trump’s racist executive order

Black Lives Matter DC: No Safety Without Self-Determination

Washington, D.C.- Trump’s alleged “takeover” of D.C. is a con. It is not about public safety; it is political theater. It is designed to make people think something new is happening when Black and other marginalized D.C. residents know we already live in the most heavily policed city in the United States. Our city, with a population over 700,000, is patrolled by 32 independent police agencies, eight university departments, and five local agencies that have cooperative agreements with the DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) under the Police Coordination Act (PCA). These agencies share the same immunity and powers as MPD when patrolling D.C.

Free DC Models Effective Resistance To Trump’s Takeover

On Monday, President Donald Trump ordered 800 National Guard troops to the nation’s capital — a move Princeton University professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad described as “a slide towards fascism” and “textbook” authoritarianism. Claiming emergency powers from the D.C. Home Rule Act, Trump also announced a takeover of the Metropolitan Police.  As is typical with authoritarians, the pretense for these orders was an invented crime emergency. But pretense is just that. We should all remember Washington, D.C.’s most violent day in recent years — Jan. 6, 2021 — was sparked by Trump himself. What’s more, D.C.’s safety won’t come from militarization, but rather through decreasing unemployment, ending ICE’s kidnapping of neighbors, and restoring funding to Medicaid, SNAP and schools.

Trump Deploys National Guard, Takes Over Washington, DC Police

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday moved to deploy the National Guard on the streets of Washington, D.C., while also officially taking over the city's police department. What's more, Trump suggested that this could be a model for other American cities. As reported by NBC News, Trump said during his announcement on plans to deploy the National Guard in the nation's capital that "other cities are hopefully watching this" and that he hoped it would make them "self-clean up, and maybe they'll self-do this and get rid of the cashless bail thing and all of the things that caused the problem." Trump then named Baltimore, Oakland, New York, and Chicago as potential future targets for National Guard deployments and other measures.

US Empire’s Tactics Come Home; Trump Sends Military To Repress Protests

US President Donald Trump deployed the military to repress demonstrations in Los Angeles, California, as protesters flooded the streets to denounce the abuse of immigrants by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Trump sent at least 700 Marines and 2,000 members of the National Guard. This is the first time in 60 years that a US president has deployed troops to a state without the approval of its governor. The office of California’s Governor Gavin Newsom condemned Trump’s move as an “illegal militarization of Los Angeles”, and filed a lawsuit seeking to block the president and Department of Defense from taking control of a California National Guard unit.

Santa Ana Fights Back As ICE And National Guard Move In

Santa Ana, CA – On Monday, June 9, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began raiding multiple locations across the city of Santa Ana and the surrounding Orange County. ICE was seen arresting day laborers at many Home Depot locations, people at fast food restaurants, bus stops, car washes and more. Community organizations like the OC Rapid Response Network responded immediately, calling for a protest at the Santa Ana United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) field office where those arrested were being taken to. Protesters shouted “Shame! Shame! Shame!” at ICE agents surrounding the building holding non-lethal weapons and playing an automated message on a megaphone telling protesters to stay off the property.

Trump Sets Military Against Civilians; Service Members Have Duty To Disobey

Four and a half months after his inauguration, Donald Trump is exercising his authoritarian chops, targeting immigrants in the state he most despises — California. Making good on Trump’s nativist pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security started conducting widespread raids outside workplaces in Los Angeles. They began on June 6, with no prior notification to the California governor, L.A. mayor or local law enforcement.

The Use Of National Guard And Active Duty Troops To Control Opposition

The Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild is opposed to the use of military forces to “put down” or “control” the heartfelt reactions by community members to workplace immigration raids in Los Angeles and other cities. The Trump administration claims the use of the troops is necessary because local police are incapable of protecting the masked, non-uniformed, but heavily armed, federal forces from ICE, DHS, ATF and the FBI. Nothing could be further from the truth. In California, for example, Governor Gavin Newsom has denounced the use of military troops as a dangerous escalation of the confrontations.

LA Protest Response Risks Turning US Military Into Political Force

The Trump administration’s deployment of national guard troops to Los Angeles to intervene in civilian protests in the face of opposition from the Californian governor is a major escalation that risks the politicisation of the US military, armed service veterans are warning. Former top military figures have told the Guardian that the decision to put up to 2,000 troops under federal control and send them into the streets of LA is a violation of the military’s commitment to keep out of domestic politics in all but the most exceptional circumstances. The last time a US president federalised the national guard against the wishes of a state governor was in 1965, when Lyndon Johnson deployed them to protect civil rights marchers in Alabama.

Protesters Clash With Law Enforcement In Downtown Los Angeles

Federal agents conducted a series of immigration sweeps across Los Angeles on Friday, prompting anger and resistance from onlookers and immigrant rights groups that have braced for this type of action for months. Over the weekend, tensions continued to rise between state and local authorities and Trump administration officials, who said they were calling up the National Guard in response to what they said were "violent mobs" attacking "ICE Officers and Federal Law Enforcement Agents carrying out basic deportation operations in Los Angeles." Gov. Gavin Newsom called the plan to take over deployment from the state "purposefully inflammatory," adding that it "will only escalate tensions."

Virginia House Unanimously Passes Defend The Guard Act

On Tuesday, the Virginia House of Delegates passed the Defend the Guard Act, legislation that would prohibit the deployment of the state’s National Guard to combat zones without a declaration of war from Congress, as required by the Constitution. The bill passed unanimously in a vote of 99-0, and it now heads to the Virginia Senate. “HB2193 Defend the Guard Act passes the Virginia House of Delegates 99-0. On to the Virginia Senate,” Delegate Nick Freitas, a retired Green Beret who sponsored the bill, wrote on X. “Thank you all and God speed!”

Columbia University Threatens To Deploy National Guard On Students

Columbia University students who are part of the Gaza solidarity encampment have raised the alarm that during negotiations, the university administration threatened to call in the National Guard to evacuate the camp. The threat from Columbia’s administration comes on the seventh day of the encampment of hundreds of students who are demanding that the university divest all finances, from corporations that profit in any way shape or form from Israeli genocide and cut academic ties with Israeli institutions. The Columbia encampment already withstood a violent eviction at the hands of the New York City Police Department on Thursday April 18.

Veterans Quit DeSantis’ Florida State Guard Over Militia-Style Training

When the first recruiting class of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new Florida State Guard showed up for training last month, they had varied experiences and expectations. Over 30 days in June, teenagers out of high school and retired military veterans came to Camp Blanding, the National Guard base near Jacksonville. Many were told they would volunteer for a revived State Guard with a nonmilitary mission: help Floridians in times of need or disaster. Instead, the state’s National Guard trained the volunteers for combat. Khakis and polos were replaced by camouflaged uniforms. Volunteers assured they could keep their facial hair were ordered to shave.

National Guard Seeks To Double Size Of Its Largest Training Site

Michigan - Nestled near the headwaters of the Au Sable River in Northern Lower Michigan, in lands forcibly taken from the Odawa and Ojibwa, the Michigan Army National Guard (MIANG) currently operates the largest National Guard training site in the country, Camp Grayling. At 230 square miles, it could fit Detroit (139 sq. miles), Lansing (37 sq. miles), and Grand Rapids (45 sq. miles) safely within its footprint. In addition to the Army and National Guard, the area is used by police departments, prisons, private military contractors, and foreign military units. In January of 2022, the National Guard proposed expanding its Land Use Agreement with the state by a staggering 250 square miles, bringing its size to 490 square miles, or about twice the size of Chicago. This is happening at the same time the Air National Guard is seeking separately to expand operations over Northern Michigan and Lake Huron, likely in concert with the proposed expansion of Camp Grayling.
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