Los Angeles is now the hub of turmoil, with violent rioting, mass looting, and attacks on police personnel. Things got worse when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials stepped up their raids across the city, which made people want answers. Instead, they got a military reaction that President Donald Trump authorized immediately.
Trump has sending 4,000 Guard troops in the Angeles area, along with 700 U.S. Marines to help. The President has said that he might employ the Insurrection Act of 1807, which is a statute that is hardly often utilized. It lets him send active-duty soldiers into American cities to seize control during times of great disturbance.
The Insurrection Act: A Strong but Disputed Law
The Insurrection Act has been used before to put down rebellions and make sure federal law is followed. After the Civil War, President Ulysses S. Grant used it to fight racial violence by the Ku Klux Klan. In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower used it to make sure that schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, were no longer segregated.
Trump’s Warning and the Governor’s Answer
California Governor Gavin Newsom has strongly opposed Trump’s decision to send soldiers. He has accused the President of deploying force as political theater. Newsom has officially asked the Trump Administration to take back the troops that were sent to Los Angeles County and give them back to him. Newsom stated, “We didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved,” and he added that the action is a significant violation of state sovereignty.
Tensions are rising across the country.
Los Angeles is not the only city where this is happening. Protests like these have also happened in New York, Chicago, Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Austin. Trump has promised to do something about it, saying, “If Governor Gavin Newsom of California and Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles can’t do their jobs… then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!” The use of National Guard forces and U.S. Marines has raised worries about the possibility of more violence and what it means for democracy and state sovereignty.
