Marines mobilized in response to LA protests

Funny that the President mobilizing the U.S. military in response to riots is flagged here. We deserve what we get for voting him back in and ignoring stories like this. Shame.

Soldiers, especially Marines, are trained to follow orders and kill. They are not specialists in de-escalation or crowd control.

Here's hoping this is purely an optics play and they are only there to waste money and incite nationalism. Because if this escalates in any way and the US military turns on Americans, its hard to understate how bad things could get.

Your protests are tame: no fireworks, a few tyre fire lasting like a hour, no BF60s. On the org side, no water to kill tear gas grenades (I had a friend who used a Canadian lacrosse stick with a remote picker to send the package back, but most people use water buckets), no barbecue food or temporary toilets, some street docs but clearly not well organised, no muscle to keep the youngest/wildest from taking it too far (in my city it's often union dockers with the task, works wonders). Also, sunglasses or ski masks help not loosing eyes to flashballs aimed at the crowd.

Yet it's clear your police isn't trained for deascalation (or at all tbh), and have no idea of how a mobile defense works (that's a doctrinal issue, not an individual issue).

Kinda liked the 'shame, shame' chant though, very good idea, keep it up!

Reminder that the authority under which the the US military is deployed against US citizens was intended to be used in exceptional (extreme) circumstances - ostensibly because no other options would suffice.

    The Insurrection Act authorizes the president to deploy 
    military forces inside the United States to suppress rebellion
    or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations.

    The statute implements Congress’s authority under the Constitution
    to "provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of
    the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions." 

    It is the primary exception to the Posse Comitatus Act,
    under which federal military forces are generally barred
    from participating in civilian law enforcement activities.

ref: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/insu...

This is the heaviest hammer in the toolbox. Deploying it against citizens he doesn't like because he resents their message is a historical display of bad character and is profoundly unethical in a way that the harshest adjectives struggle to reflect.

Let’s just hope Neil doesn’t have to update his lyrics. But, given as that’s probably the point of the exercise…

I worry that, rather than de-escalation, one of the White House’s explicit goals here is to stage manage a Kent State-like demonstration of state force against left-wing activists that spreads to other cities. I sincerely hope I’m cynically wrong here.

The gulf between what is going on in the world and what makes it to the front page of Hacker News is growing ever vaster.

Related:

Trump deploys National Guard as Los Angeles protests against immigration agents (105 points, 2 days ago, 50 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44214230

The National Guard Deployment in LA Is a Threat to Democracy (15 points, 7 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44230137

(Although you'd think 2000 National Guard troops would be enough without the 700 Marines)

I wonder how many civilians will be disappeared before a Dem governor finds their balls and musters the state militia. There’s millions of patriots out there just waiting for the call to action. This nonviolent shit will get you killed. MLK was a gun owner.

If that kind of talk worries you, consider how much uglier it will be when the good people of LA form unregulated militias instead. Do you really want to see Ruby Ridge 2: Rooftop Korean boogaloo?