Because their loved ones are serving on the streets of Los Angeles, spouses are facing health crises alone. troops who were worn out from a task for which they were unprepared. Children of active-duty soldiers deployed on American soil were left without their parents.
According to Brandi Jones, organizing director of the Secure Families Initiative, a nonprofit organization that supports military wives, children, and veterans, such occurrences are occurring as a result of the Trump administration’s decision to send troops to Los Angeles.
During a virtual news conference on Thursday, Jones stated, “We’ve heard from families who are concerned that what their loved ones have served and sacrificed in defense of the Constitution and all the rights it guarantees are really under siege right now in a way they could never have imagined.”
Veterans, legal experts, and pro-active-duty military supporters issued a warning on the eve of Independence Day that deploying troops to put an end to protests in California’s biggest city jeopardizes democratic values. The deployment of federal troops for civilian law enforcement is prohibited by a legislation that dates back 147 years.
During the news conference, retired lieutenant colonel Dan Maurer, who is currently a law professor at Ohio Northern University, said that President Trump is militarizing America once more and that this is the very condition we fought for.
Approximately 3,950 National Guard members and 700 Marines are still in Los Angeles, guarding federal property against protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement proceedings, even though 150 of them were freed from protest duty on Tuesday, according to a news release from US Northern Command.
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Marines pose danger and raise questions on the streets of Los Angeles.
Trump has justified the use of troops in Los Angeles, claiming on social media that if they weren’t deployed, the city would be on fire right now. In an Oval Office news conference, he called the L.A. deployment the first, maybe of many, and proposed that similar actions be taken in other American cities.
Title 10 of the US Code federalized the troops in Los Angeles, and their jurisdiction is limited. According to the U.S. Northern Command, they are only required to safeguard government property and troops; they do not have the power to make arrests; instead, they can only detain people before turning them over to the police.
According to Reuters and the CBS program Face the Nation, Marines and the National Guard have been most involved in ICE’s operations by providing protection during arrests, even though they apprehended a U.S. Army veteran in early June.
According to Maurer, the government has provocatively and needlessly used the military in a manner that mirrors the exact anxieties of our founding fathers. essentially using the military as a police force.
In reference to the law that forbids the use of troops in a law enforcement capacity on American soil, Maurer stated that the military is pushed closer to the Posse Comitatus line the more they [the military] act to provide security around a perimeter, the more they act to detain people, and the more they act to question people who are suspected of being illegal immigrants. Being there is extremely risky.
Other speakers contended that the deployment of troops in Los Angeles puts military members in danger by putting them in a situation for which they were not prepared and by setting them up against citizens of the United States.
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According to the San Diego-based 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the California National Guard, 300 soldiers were sent in to guard federal personnel and property.
According to Joe Plenzler, a Marine combat veteran who served as the platoon commander, weapons platoon commander, and company executive officer for the 2nd Batallion 7th Marines, which is currently stationed in downtown Los Angeles, “Our Marines are our nation’s shock troops, and it’s completely inappropriate that they’re deployed in the streets of Los Angeles.”
More than half of the guys Plenzler served with in 2nd Batallion were from Spanish-speaking families, he said, and some of them had green cards and were in the nation as legal permanent residents without yet being able to take use of all the privileges of citizenship.
As they are being forced to assist ICE in arresting and deporting diligent individuals who resemble those they would see at their own family reunions, consider what may be going through their minds at the moment, Plenzler said.
Plenzler also compared civilian law enforcement training to that received by Marines.
Plenzler stated, “We are not police officers.” The de-escalation techniques needed for community policing are not taught to Marines. Because there is a greater chance of disproportionate force, needless deaths, and a decline in public trust, we generally avoid deploying troops in civilian areas.
Marines joined the LAPD in resolving a domestic conflict during the 1992 L.A. riots. When one officer asked the Marines to cover him, they fired 200 rounds into the house because they thought he was instructing them to begin fire.
According to Christopher Purdy, a former Army National Guard member and founder of the nonprofit veteran advocacy organization The Chamberlain Network, our troops are overworked, underprepared, and overloaded.
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Advocates claim that troop deployments to Los Angeles in support of immigration enforcement activities are causing anguish for some National Guard personnel and their families.
According to Purdy, many guard units are only provided one civil unrest training block annually, meaning they frequently carry out these operations with little to no preparation.
We underwent weeks of rigorous training on cultural competency, local laws and customs, and how to conduct a combination of civil and combat operations when I deployed to Iraq, Purdy said. Why are we taking that shortcut now, when troops are being deployed to the front lines on American streets, if we wouldn’t accept it for a combat deployment?
Each speaker discussed the significance of holding the federal government responsible for the way these men and women are being utilized on American territory as well as how it treats active-duty personnel.
This Fourth of July, I consider the duty and the promise of freedom. According to Jones, military family preparedness is force readiness. Active-duty families are telling us at Secure Families Initiative that if families are overburdened or if soldiers are being used against civilians, you cannot maintain the military.
Maurer added: If the people we democratically empower to uphold the rule of law disregard it whenever they like, it is worthless. And I believe we are at that point.
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