Yet another sign of Trump’s America and our country heading downhill. It’s bad enough that this is happening, and it will keep happening. But there are still people who speak out, and if it causes just one more person to think, it’s a start and better than nothing. We can’t speak out much more than we do here, and talking to our Congress folks. But it’s something. From AlterNet:
Retired U.S. Air Force official Col. Cedric Leighton said Sunday the deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. is “a very dangerous step.” Roughly 2,000 troops are now stationed in the capital, including both D.C.-based personnel and those sent from other Republican-led states. According to reports, these troops are positioned primarily in high-traffic, tourist-heavy areas like the National Mall and Union Station, rather than known high-crime neighborhoods. The troops are now allowed to carry firearms.
Tourist attractions, where there’s a much higher chance of a visitor running afoul of these yahoos and not knowing what they can and cannot do. People who are citizens or visitors from overseas, not sure of their options. And NOT in high crime areas where they’re really needed. They now carry firearms. What’s wrong with this picture?
During an appearance on CNN Monday, Leighton said, “First of all, as the statistics say, even though the White House is trying to debunk those statistics, but every reputable source has said that the crime rate is substantially lower in D.C. over the past year or two. Actually, since the pandemic, basically.”
The pandemic saw a big increase in violence, with so many people shut away from others and going stir-crazy. But as he said, it’s *dropped* since then. DROPPED. Trump is using an excuse that holds no water to put DC under a version of martial law. And he intends to do it to other cities, and likely then the rest of the country. That’s beyond frightening. How the hell do we fight back against that?
It’s time to think about it. We need to start preparing *now* before it actually happens, and hopefully staving off the dictatorship of one tired, ill, dementia-ridden old man. He’s incoherent these days, and he’s running the country. His sycophants will continue on with what they’re doing, even if we get him out of the White House. Vance won’t be any better – the man with the personality of a clam, and that’s an insult to clams.
He continued: “And as a result of that, the crisis that has been manufactured here by the White House is one that does not require the kind of deployment that we see here. The Metropolitan Police Department here in Washington has been able to handle the crime rate based on most accounts here, and from a personal standpoint, I feel certainly a lot safer in D.C. than I have before.” He added that “feelings of aggression” among D.C. residents is “not going to bode well. The type of weapons that they’re using are the types of weapons that are standard issue, basically M4 carbines and M17 pistols are what’s being used by the National Guard,” Leighton said. He added that those are not good crowd control weapons and shouldn’t be used against a civilian population.
Bingo. There it is. Don’t use them on the civilian population. Someone might fire back, and that’s a bigger problem. It may actually start riots, which will play directly into Trump’s hands, and bring us even closer to the edge, if not over, into martial law. Please, by everything that’s holy, no.
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Trump’s provocation is the point. He wants someone to shoot back.
Then he can over-react in response.
Well, yes. I was trying to be diplomatic. But yes, exactly.