Gavin Newsom called up the National Guard for its ‘hardest mission:’ calming a city on edge

Looting, vandalism and violence left Los Angeles ravaged on Saturday night. By Sunday morning, city streets were marked by military Humvees filled with National Guard troops armed with rifles and clad in protective gear.

It was a scene reminiscent of the riots that shook Los Angeles in 1992, which erupted after a predominantly white jury handed down not-guilty verdicts for the four Los Angeles police officers who were filmed beating Rodney King, a black driver. The National Guard played a role in quieting the uproar.

This time, the troops are in Los Angeles in response to requests from local authorities, who for days have struggled to respond to escalating protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on May 30 declared a state of emergency and activated the California National Guard to assist local law enforcement.

“I find that local authority is inadequate to address the threat posed by the civil unrest within Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles,” the governor’s emergency order reads.

National Guard troops are part-time soldiers and airmen who can be deployed for domestic missions responding to emergencies, or by the president. Newsom had previously called up National Guard soldiers and airmen to work in food banks because of the coronavirus outbreak.

“Responding to civil unrest is the hardest mission your National Guard does,” Gen. Joseph Lengyel, chief of the National Guard Bureau wrote on Twitter. “Our unique, longstanding partnerships with local civilian first responders mean we are always ready, always there to help, when needed, where it’s needed.”

Under the new order, California National Guard troops will provide logistical support and serve as reinforcements to local officers, who will likely continue to police active protests, said Brian Ferguson, spokesman for the governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

After local police cleared an area, the National Guard may come in to maintain order, he added.

Any future deployments will likely be preceded by local emergency declarations, Ferguson said.

The National Guard is on standby in San Francisco, where Mayor London Breed has instituted citywide curfew but not declared a state of emergency.

As of Sunday morning, approximately 5,000 National Guardsmen are active in 15 states and Washington, D.C., according to a press release. Governors called for their deployments.

President Trump said on Sunday that he will defer to state and local authorities on National Guard deployments after originally indicating that he may assume federal control. In a Thursday Tweet, the president lauded the National Guard’s response in Minneapolis and promised that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” — a message that Twitter restricted because the company said it “violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence.”

Since the 1952 Armed Forces Reserve Act was signed into law, a president has mobilized the National Guard 12 times for domestic missions, the Chicago Tribune reported. All but two of those instances concerned civil rights, from integration to protests over police violence.

This story was originally published May 31, 2020 at 4:44 PM.