The decision of the US president, holds to control protests on migratory raids is an unprecedented order in the country in 33 years. To this is added that the New Yorker adopted it without approval of the local governor, something not seen since 1965.
First presidential decision to suffocate riots since 1992
The last time a president of the US ordered that the National Guard will take the streets to guarantee the order in the streets was in 1992, when George Wh Bush did to end the violent revolts that exploded on April 29 of that year after the acquittal of the four police officers who had brutally hit Rodney King a year earlier.
The failure on account of the aggression to King, who had been recorded by a neighbor of Los Angeles and broadcast widely in the media, caused violent disturbances and looting episodes that lasted four days and left about 60 dead, more than 2,000 injured and large material damage.
The National Guard deployments to neutralize this type of episodes are not rare in the United States, but it is local executives who normally request the maneuver, as happened, for example, when governors of more than twenty states activated units of this body in 2020 to deal with protests for the death of.
In the Episode of Los Angeles of 1992 both the Californian governor of that time, Republican Peter Wilson, and the mayor of the city, the Democrat Tom Bradley, asked Bush to invoke the insurrection law to allow the National Guard to take the streets of the city.
First National Guard shipment without state consent in 60 years
The decision to send to the more than 4,000 military personnel against the criteria of the current Californian governor, and the mayor, the Democrat, Karen Bass, draws in turn a scenario that was not seen in the country in six decades.
The last time something similar happened was in March 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson “federalized” the National Guard to send it to Alabama without the approval of the state governor, George Wallace.
Johnson sought to protect participants in peaceful marches for civil rights against Wallace’s wishes, a firm segregationist.
California decide demandar a Trump
This Monday the State of California chose to file a lawsuit against Trump for considering that it “illegally” deployed the National Guard by considering that he abused “the authority of the federal government” and that he violated the tenth amendment of the Constitution.
On Saturday the Republican made the decision despite the fact that elected officials, the police and the Los Angeles sheriff confirmed that the protests, which mostly remained peaceful, were contained, which led to a new escalation in the verbal exchanges between Trump and Newsom, who accused the tycoon of creating “a crisis” and being “aggravating the situation.”
It was Newsom himself who announced today, after being informed by the White House, that another 2,000 additional troops will be deployed in Los Angeles, while denouncing the precarious conditions in which the soldiers are currently publishing photos on their social networks that show the military sleeping overcrowded.
What is the insurrection law?
To authorize the deployment, on Saturday Trump made use of title 10 of the Federal Code (which allows mobilization if there is an invasion or a rebellion or if the president cannot enforce the law through the forces of the regular order) and avoided invoking the insurrection law, as Bush did in 92 and Johnson in 65.
However, Trump did not close the door to use that resource, since when asked on Sunday for that possibility he replied that it will depend “on whether or not there is an insurrection.”
The insurrection law dates from 1807, grants a capacity to deploy the US army to suppress episodes of civil disorder and is considered one of the most forceful emergency powers in the US.
asb/rrt
