Active duty Army brigade prepared to patrol US streets

Censored News reader responds to: 'US Army brigade ready to patrol US streets'

Related link: Democracy Now! 'Is Posse Comitatus Dead?'


Letter to the editor: This is not what Americans have given their lives for in every war, from the very Revolution itself, through the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Viet Nam and now, Afghanistan and, yes, even in the misrepresented-into Iraq War, as well as in every civil movement, from the Abolitionists through the Union Movement to Suffragist Movement, to the Civil Rights Movement and the Women's Liberation Movement. It dishonors their memory and that is something I cannot bring myself to do. -- Lorraine

Letter to the editor:

I just sent you an e-mail regarding how the training and possible deployment of American Army troops to patrol American cities (although that has been done at the request of state governors and city mayors, as in the New Orleans Katrina disaster) and how this apparently proposed usage of active duty American military squares with Posse Comitatus.

I also sited the instance of the 1992 riots, in which U. S. Army troops were also used, but I mistakenly said that those troops were sent to San Francisco, when they were actually sent to Los Angeles, so I send this by way of correction.

Too, in every instance, as far as I can tell, such troops, when they were deployed, were deployed to their mission as a result of request by either city mayors or state governors. Except, of course, for the Hoover-ordered Bonus Marchers incident in the 1930s. But even in that instance, it could be argued that then-President Herbert Hoover was, after a fashion, acting as a sort of Chief Executive Officer of Washington, D. C., although it is odd that he wouldn’t have waited for a request from the city’s Mayor. I don’t know whether he did or not, but that would have been more in keeping with what has, apparently, been historical precedent.

But, as has been fearfully suggested by many, this would be the first time, to my knowledge – which, admittedly, is limited – that active duty American military would be prepared in advance for deployment in American cities. Every other incident appears to have been mounted in response to, not in preparation for, such an incident.

Thank you,

Lorraine