Original article by Natalia Marques republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
“The oath we took as soldiers absolutely comes with an asterisk, and this is it,”: Veteran activists in Portland urge National Guard Troops to defy Trump’s orders
A US federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on October 9, blocking the Trump administration’s deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops to Chicago. Hundreds were already stationed in the midwestern city at the time of this ruling. This comes days after a separate judge blocked the deployment of the National Guard to Portland, Oregon.
Currently, there are around 500 National Guard troops in the greater Chicago area, 2,400 in Washington, DC, and 100 still in Los Angeles down from a peak of 4,700 in June.
With the support of the Governor of Tennessee, the state’s National Guard troops are set to begin patrolling the city of Memphis. Unlike Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, Tennessee’s Republican governor Bill Lee is supportive of Trump’s federal takeover efforts and therefore is sending troops from his own state to Memphis – thus eliminating the legal obstacles Trump has faced in other states.
Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson called the judge’s order a “win for the people of Chicago and the rule of law.” The previous day, Trump called for the jailing of both Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker for “failing to protect Ice Officers”. But Johnson asserted that, as protests against violent ICE raids continue in Chicago, that there is “no rebellion,” there are “just good people standing up for what is right.”
Federal troops blocked in Portland
Trump announced the deployment of federal troops to Portland on September 27, characterizing the West Coast city as “war ravaged” and claiming that ICE facilities were under attack by “Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”
According to federal judge Karin Immergut, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, there is “substantial evidence that the protests at the Portland ICE facility were not significantly violent or disruptive in the days – or even weeks – leading up to the President’s directive ordering the deployment of troops to Oregon.”
Top Trump adviser Stephen Miller described Immergut’s ruling as a “legal insurrection.”
On September 22, Trump announced that he was declaring “Antifa” a domestic terrorist organization, despite the fact that Antifa is a decentralized movement with no central organization attached.
Amid attempts by the Trump administration to militarize the city, Portland residents have continued to protest. Demonstrations continued against ICE, including a march to the ICE facility in Portland in the early afternoon of Saturday, October 4 – which was attacked by federal agents deploying tear gas, smoke canisters, and pepper balls at protesters. Protesters outside the ICE facility also experienced similar brutal crowd control tactics by federal agents once again that evening – including tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and pepper balls – despite no clear provocation by demonstrators.
Portland veterans urge National Guard members to disobey
On October 6, dozens of veterans, some with anti-war veteran group About Face, held a press conference, with some speakers and signage urging National Guard members to disobey Trump’s orders. Several signs read “Trump is the real enemy within,” referencing the President’s previous statements claiming that he is sending troops to so-called “Democrat-run” cities to protect from “invasion from within”. Other signs read: “Veterans say: Duty to disobey”, “No war in Portland”, and “Guard, go home.”
“Trump is signaling in very clear terms he wants to go to war in American cities,” said Portland City Councilor Mitch Green, an Army veteran who served in the US invasion of Afghanistan, at the press conference. “He said he wants to use Portland as a training ground and that soldiers should do ‘whatever they want’ to protesters. While it’s unclear what the role of the National Guard will be, these threats are as serious as anything in American history. The oath we took as soldiers absolutely comes with an asterisk, and this is it.”
Original article by Natalia Marques republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
