By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA.com Washington Bureau Chief and White House Correspondent
“The response feels like provocation, not protection,” says Cicley Gay, Chairwoman of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. She is reacting to President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles, California.
Trump unilaterally requested the service without Governor Gavin Newsom.
Under U.S. laws such as Title 10 and Title 32 of the U.S. Code, the governor of the state in question assumes command. When deployed nationwide, the U.S. president is the commander-in-chief.
On a larger scale, this moment is a reminder of President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in 2020. He asked the reservists in 23 states and the District of Columbia to jump into action during clashes over justice for George Floyd. One of the most notable cases was when President Trump disbursed protestors in front of the White House. He wanted to take a picture in front of St. John Episcopal Church across the street. The crowd was pepper sprayed.
Gay compares and contrasts June of 2020 and Los Angeles today. “Deploying the National Guard against protestors in a city still grieving and grappling with racial and immigration injustice echoes the federal show of force we saw in D.C. after George Floyd’s murder. We must ask: who is being protected, and from what? Because real leadership doesn’t silence dissent—it listens, it learns, and it leads with care.”
Today’s focus is on the actions of ICE and other federal agents against migrants and the protestors who are in support of rights and freedoms.
Michael Steele, former head of the Republican National Committee, condemns the Trump response, saying this is “more Trump yippe-ki-yay cowboy BS.”
Steele is siding with Governor Newsom, saying what the president is doing is “deliberately taunting the immigrant community with jacked-booted ICE raids.” He goes on to say that it “may titillate the MAGA base.” However, Steele affirms that Governor Newsom is correct in protesting the “inflammatory” response by the administration to individuals “exercising their First Amendment rights.”
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) stated on social media, “Deploying troops to communities already under pressure is not leadership—it’s provocation. The Trump Administration is weaponizing fear to divide and destabilize.” The nation’s oldest civil rights organization vows not to be silent as they stand with those who are being “targeted and terrorized.”
Regarding what is happening in Los Angeles, Gay paints a picture of a “tense” energy that “started in places like Paramount and Compton [and] has now spilled into downtown—especially near the Fashion District and around detention centers.”
On the official White House social media accounts, President Trump has said, “If Governor Gavin Newsom, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs, which everyone knows they can’t, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!”
Gay, who is in Los Angeles for the BET Awards this weekend, believes, “What we’re witnessing in Los Angeles is not just a crackdown—it’s a chilling reminder of what happens when power is used to provoke fear instead of promote justice.”
