On June10, I was at the National Guard deployment facility on Alameda Street in downtown Los Angeles.
The National Guard quickly took the ground and was out in full force. They were in full battle gear with their trucks, halftracks and weapons trailers. In short, all the gear that the military brings in when preparing for battle.
They were there because of President Donald Trump. They would soon be joined by a contingent of 700 Marines also by order of Commander-in-Chief Trump.
I don’t know how many times I can say overkill when it comes to this. There were some folks at the deployment location shouting at the military. That didn’t do any good.
The deal was already done. And it’s a costly deal. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed that the cost of putting the military on the ground in L.A. was $134 million. It almost certainly will be far more than that when the dust settles. All, of course, paid for by taxpayers.
So, what is the point of this squandered spending? One, it allows Trump to grandstand politically. Two, it allows him to take another big swipe at Democrats from Gov. Gavin Newsom to L.A. Mayor Karen Bass with his signature knock Democrats are incompetent, clueless and pander to criminals, illegal immigrants and the supposed shiftless poor.
Three, it supposedly proves that Democratic-run cites are lawless cesspools of mismanagement.
And of course, four, only a tough, resolute federal government run by who else, Trump, has the moxie, the grit, and hardnosed will to step in and clean up the alleged weak-kneed Democrat’s mess.
This all makes good theater, drama and loads of press clippings. But it’s all pure, unadulterated patented hogwash.
L.A. was not in danger of burning to the ground. Businesses wholesale were not being looted and vandalized. Mobs were not roaming the streets throughout the city committing mayhem and destruction.
This was a classic, textbook example of the big scare. Trump would milk it for all it was worth.
The bigger question is what does this mean for the future for America? Now, you’ve got a guy in the White House who essentially can call anything at the drop of a flying bottle or broken window in a protest march an insurrection.
He can bypass governors, mayor, and local officials and call in the cavalry with impunity. In L.A. by the way, neither the governor, the mayor, local officials and certainly not local law enforcement asked for the National Guard let alone the Marines.
But nonetheless, they got it because of Trump. That doesn’t bode well for the future. We have three and a half more years of this guy in office.
What does that mean? That means any time, any place, someone, in this case, Trump, can say, Hey, we have an insurrection. We’re going to call in the Marines. We’re going to call in the National Guard and restore law and order even when there is no widespread lawless disorder.
There’s another huge danger with this political recklessness. That is the risk of massive collateral damage and further inflaming situations. The collateral damage in the anti-ICE protests and demonstrations was the lift of the restraint on the use of so-called non-lethal bullets.
The label “non-lethal” in front of bullet is pure fiction. A medical study tallied more than 2,000 injuries, 300 physical disabilities and 50 deaths from the firing by police at demonstrators of “non-lethal” bullets. The LAPD during a couple of protests fired more than 600 “non-lethal” bullets at protesters. I might add the overwhelming majority of whom marched and protested peacefully, lawfully and were non-violent.
I called on L.A. city officials and the Los Angeles Police Department to ban the use ofnon-lethal bullets. They increase the risk of serious injury and further stirring crowds. I made the same call that this kind of weaponry certainly should not be used by the Marines and the National Guard.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan, egged on by his boss, Trump, has made it clear the ICE sweeps, raids and snatch and grab of alleged undocumented persons in the country will escalate. That means two things for certain.
One, there will be continued protests and demonstrations. Two, the potential for more serious injuries — and potentially deaths — are ever present.
Trump has set a dangerous precedent hauling in the Marines and the National Guard. It’s a waste of millions of dollars, creates more turmoil and chaos, further alienates local and state political officials, scares the public and piles up tons of sensationalist media coverage.
In the end, we’re all pawns in a bigger political game. The game is “I’m in control.”
I’m the boss. I can flout laws. I can ignore any protocol, not to mention tradition and history, to essentially assert my dominance. It’s a game that Trump, the inciter-in-chief, thinks can have only one winner, Trump.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst and the host of the weekly The Hutchinson Report Facebook Livestream. His latest book is “Conned:Why the MAGA Nation” (Middle Passage Press).
