By Michael Hernandez
Question to Democrat Governors and Mayors: Do you want your cities burned and looted by violent demonstrators? Then don’t call up the National Guard to help police bring law and order. Otherwise, President Donald J. Trump who has the support of the majority of Americans will invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to bring in active military troops into the nation’s cities to stop the rioting.
The Insurrection Act of 1807 is a United States federal law (10 U.S.C. §§ 251–255; prior to 2016, 10 U.S.C. §§ 331–335) that empowers the president of the United States to deploy military troops within the United States in particular circumstances, such as to suppress civil disorder, insurrection and rebellion. The act provides the “major exception” to the Posse Comitatus Act, which otherwise limits the use of the U.S. military for law enforcement within the United States. (Editor’s Note: For more information on the Insurrection Act of 1807 go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurrection_Act_of_1807.)
Incidentally, the Insurrection Act of 1807 has been utilized by 11 Presidents including President John F. Kennedy who used it twice without the state governor’s approval on Sept. 30, 1962 in Mississippi and on Sept. 10, 1963 in Alabama; and by President Lyndon B. Johnson who used it three times on July 24, 1967 (Detroit, Michigan); April 5, 1968 (Washington, D.C.); and April 7, 1968 (Baltimore, Maryland and Chicago, Illinois). The above presidents were Democrats.
A recent poll taken by Morning Consult and reported by Breitbart News on June 2nd shows that 71 percent of Americans support the use of the National Guard to supplement city police forces in addressing “protests and demonstrations” (Note: The poll did not use the word ‘riots” so as not to bias the results) in American cities. Likewise, 58 percent of American voters support the use of the U.S. Military to supplement city police forces.
This is important because in the City of New York where the famous Macy department store (site of the nation’s Thanksgiving Parade) was looted last night)—no National Guard has been called to assist the New York Police Department because they are not wanted by Mayor Bill de Blasio (Democrat). This has even created a rift between New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (Democrat) who has criticized the New York mayor and called his failure to quell violence and unrest “inexcusable.”
President Donald Trump on Tuesday demanded that New York leaders call up the National Guard to defend the city and also attacked the mayor for an 11 p.m. curfew which he said was too late and “should be 7 p.m.”
Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden in a speech delivered Tuesday in Philadlephai’s city hall blamed police for “escalating tension, resort(ing) to excessive violence.”
Police should not be blamed for violence. Democrat Governors and Mayors if you do not want your cities burned and looted—call up the National Guard now or be prepared to have the job done for you by the President calling up the U.S. Military as America’s Commander-In-Chief.
(Editor’s Note: So far President Donald J. Trump has not enacted the Insurrection Act. He has been waiting for State Governors and Mayors to quell violence and stop the looting and burning of American cities using all resources available, including the National Guard.)
Michael Hernandez, Co-Founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service; editor of the History Makers Report and founder of History Makers International—a community nonprofit serving youth and families in Ventura County, is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. He worked 25 years as a middle school teacher in Monrovia and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted by email at [email protected].
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If the mayors of these embattled cities were not cowards or witting accomplices to the organized violence before them, they would have had their police chiefs read the Riot Act aloud – and let their officers arrest as many non-dispersed rioters as possible.
It’s a shame this ‘line in the sand’ option is not used anymore.
Sue. This has nothing to do with kneeling. This is the Democrat party refusing the legally elected government from governing. They did this before in 1865. At the time they hated Republicans. Deja Vu Sue.
Maybe we should have embraced the kneeling sports figures and tried to fix this mess instead of calling them unpatriotic
The first line of defense if needed to maintain and restore order should be the police. This has failed in city after city because of lack of political will, when police stood by as rioters ran amok in violence. But some have done OK. Police presence should be very low for peaceful protests.
In cases where cities refuse to check rioters and where police are overwhelmed are the cases where the National Guard is needed.
Regular military should only be used as a last resort, when all else fails and we need to oppose organized violence. This doomsday option should be held in reserve for such contingencies. Regular military are trained to kill, although there are military police and peacekeeping units that could handle the job.