Sending National Guard troops into a municipality to quell disturbances is not a solution in a free society. National Guard troops are not trained in arrest, search and seizure. They do not know state or local laws; they most certainly are not familiar with Miranda rights.
Back in 1968 as a Chicago cop, I observed firsthand National Guard and Army troops who were deployed to Chicago during the riots in reaction to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination and the Democratic National Convention. “Confusion” is a mild word to describe the chaos.
Sending 700 Marines to Los Angeles may or may not be legal, but I am a Marine veteran, and dealing with our own citizens in a free society was far from the training my fellow Marine warriors and I received.
Demonstrators who cross the line from peaceful to violent no doubt need to be arrested and charged — but only by trained law enforcement officers to ensure due process, which is a right of every citizen in a free country.
— Bob Angone, Austin, Texas
Hyperbole over the guard
In Tuesday’s Tribune, multiple readers penned letters sharply criticizing President Donald Trump’s response to the Los Angeles riots, decrying his deployment of the National Guard. “Donald Trump is exceeding his authority,” Sally Munn writes. Kevin Coughlin asks: What about Jan. 6, 2021? The administration will lead us into “a police state,” Harry Hofherr writes.
The Tribune Editorial Board joined in on the hysterics (“MAGA morphs into Make America Cruel Again,” June 10), warning in its editorial that “our children are watching.” Jeez, is what the president doing that unconstitutional? That awful? That wrong?
The letter writers’ charged language sure would make you think so. But, absent from their arguments is any semblance of law. First, the president does not appear to be exceeding his authority. Section 12406 of Title 10 of the US Code, invoked by Trump, is clear: The president may deploy the guard if there is an invasion, rebellion (or threat of one) or, and most applicable here, when “the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”
Seeing as the rioters have blocked federal agents from detaining and deporting immigrants in Los Angeles, it would appear the third condition has been met, and a good argument could be made for the second having been met.
California has filed suit against the president for deploying the guard, so these issues will of course have to be litigated in court — as they should be.
Second, propagating Jan. 6 “whataboutism” here is quite rich. The Democrat-led Jan. 6 select committee sharply criticized Trump for not having deployed the guard quickly enough to defend federal property and personnel on that dark day in our nation’s history. Now, the president seems to have learned from his mistake and yet gets criticized for quickly deploying the guard to protect federal property and personnel.
Lastly, to say we now live in a “police state” is obvious hyperbole. The guard has been explicitly ordered to defend federal employees in response to, not in anticipation of, violent riots. National Guard troops are not marching through Los Angeles; they are posted at or near federal property to shield it and the agents inside.
So, to those condemning the president’s response to the LA riots, I ask: Is your criticism directed at the person or the policy? There’s a big difference.
— Max Rosen, Glencoe
When will madness stop?
Another senseless waste of tax dollars. With no request from the governor of California, the leader of the free world has sent the National Guard and Marines to control a situation that was created by his own government. I suppose he can’t send in the Army because those soldiers are otherwise occupied participating in another waste of taxpayer dollars: the parade!
Both of these situations have everything to do with the president’s ego. Too bad he didn’t think the insurrection on Jan. 6 was worthy of the National Guard, a situation that truly merited supporting the local police.
But that was also another ego trip for him. When is the madness going to stop?
— Gwen Placek, Western Springs
Advice for the governor
Chicago is the perfect location for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to strike next. Surely a Texas or Florida city won’t be next.
Chicago has a divided government as the mayor does not control the City Council, and the mayor is unpopular. The mayor should be calming the city now to alleviate some of the protesting.
I would advise Illinois’ governor to immediately call up the National Guard upon the first instance of escalated protests before President Donald Trump can.
— Anthony Carrollo, Cape Canaveral, Florida
Misguided compassion
The editorial “MAGA morphs into Make America Cruel Again” ignores the serious consequences that unchecked, unlawful entry has on our country. While America has always welcomed legal immigrants, illegal immigration breaks federal law and burdens citizens who follow the rules.
First and foremost, illegal immigration is illegal. By excusing or encouraging it, we undermine our legal system and send a message that laws are optional. This is unfair to the millions around the world who wait years and spend thousands to come here legally. Law-abiding immigrants and U.S. citizens deserve a system that honors order and fairness — not one that rewards disregard for the rules.
Illegal immigration puts pressure on our public services. Schools are overcrowded, teachers are stretched thin and health systems face rising costs. Local emergency rooms and clinics must provide care, but the bill is passed on to the American taxpayer. It’s not sustainable, and it’s not right.
Crime is another serious concern. Americans should not have to fear that their safety is secondary to political narratives.
Don’t ask law-abiding citizens to subsidize illegal entry and its consequences.
We need an immigration system that is lawful, secure and fair. That means enforcing existing laws, securing our borders and streamlining legal immigration — not ignoring our laws in the name of misguided compassion.
Americans are generous, but we also value order, accountability and justice.
— Cynthia Allen Schenk, Marengo, Illinois
We have seen worse
In the editorial about the events in Los Angeles, the Tribune Editorial Board “wondered how on God’s green earth this country can hold it together for three-and-a-half more years of this level of presidential overreach, this amount of hatred and division.”
My response is: Does the board remember the 1960s? Consider just 1968. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April. The ensuing riots all over the country make what is happening in LA look minor. We can still see the effects of those riots in parts of Chicago today.
Two months later, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. Then came the Democratic National Convention. I assume the editorial board remembers that.
That was just in the United States. In January 1968, North Korea seized the USS Pueblo and held its crew captive for 11 months. At the end of January, communist forces in Vietnam launched their Tet Offensive. While the offensive was a strategic defeat for the communists, its main casualty was President Lyndon Johnson. There were student protests and riots all over Europe. In August, the Soviet Union occupied Czechoslovakia because it dared to have thoughts of its own.
And then there was the draft.
In other words, while things seem crazy now, we have been through worse. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be concerned about what is happening, but we should keep things in perspective. Because we have been there before.
— Patrick J. Allen, River Forest
March in home countries
I have to agree with all the immigration demonstrators across the country today. The immigrants deserve good jobs and schools and honest government and to live without fear. The problem is they are marching in the wrong place.
The root cause of the problem lies in their home countries. They should be marching in the capital cities of their home countries. Let’s focus on the root cause. If everyone who feels so strongly about immigration went to the capital cities where the immigrants are escaping from, it would do much to eliminate the problem.
March in Mexico City, Quito, San Salvador or Guatemala City, where the problems originate.
Let’s fix the root cause.
— Louis J. Berardi, Kirkwood, Missouri
Consider Murrow’s words
I would like to remind my fellow Americans that this country has faced many crises in its short history. There is always someone there to remind us of who and what we represent as a nation and to the world. Such a man was Edward R. Murrow, an American broadcast journalist who lived through the Sen. Joe McCarthy era and stood up against what he knew to be a gross injustice and a violation of our values.
I would like to share one of his many memorable quotes to ponder and then for us to decide as a nation if we wish to stand together for what we know is right and then to act. “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men — not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.”
What will you do to meet this crossroad?
— Marla Cowan, Glenview
The words that divide us
I faithfully read Voice of the People each day. Letters that go straight to the truth are my favorites.
Some letters, however, simply fuel the flames of divisiveness, without revealing a profound truth.
I quickly identify those letters when a I see the words “posse” and “minions,” which appeared in two letters on June 6: “Donald Trump and his posse” and “Joe Biden and his minions.”
Labeling huge swaths of the American electorate as thoughtless sycophants does nothing to help us achieve equitable solutions for today’s issues.
Certain words divide us. Let’s drop them from the discussion.
— Mary Ann O’Rourke, Barrington
Biden’s record in office
I’d like to take a moment to provide a different perspective to a June 6 letter (“Short memories”) regarding Joe Biden as president “(throwing) money at anything that moved” during his administration.
Let us remember that Biden inherited an economy that was in a tailspin. To save the U.S. economy and support citizens of our country, Biden used his presidency to benefit the economy, middle class and struggling lower class.
Let us remember that his stimulus plan included individual stimulus checks, extended unemployment benefits, extended child care tax credits, increased funding for a national vaccine plan, and increased the budget for mortgage assistance as well as emergency assistance for those who were unhoused.
Biden’s administration invested billions of dollars in domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research to bring the U.S. manufacturing sector in line with worldwide development.
Those were just a few of the positive benefits for U.S. citizens under the Biden presidency. Let us not forget what we once had. If anyone is going to be accused of throwing money, let that money at least be used to support the children and families of the United States.
When Biden left office, he gave his successor one of the healthiest economies in the world, with low unemployment, plus a record high number of jobs created.
It’s a national shame that we can no longer say that about our country.
— Patricia Kluzik, Elgin
Hegseth ignorant of history
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to change the name of the USNS Harvey Milk because Milk’s identity as a gay man would compromise the Navy’s effort to establish a “warrior ethos.”
Poor Hegseth seems unaware that in classical Greece, gay men — including pairs of gay lovers — were seen as essential to military unit cohesion and effectiveness.
According to neoconservative historian Victor Davis Hanson’s 1994 study “The Western Way of War,” pairs of gay lovers fought with ferocity. The Sacred Band of Thebes, made up of 150 pairs of gay lovers, shattered the Spartan army at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 B.C., establishing Thebes’ independence from Sparta. Four years later, at the Battle of Tegyra, the Sacred Band vanquished another Spartan force three times its size.
One recent account called the Sacred Band of Thebes “the Special Forces of the classical era.”
It is unsettling that the security of the United States is in the hands of a man with no military experience and no knowledge of military history.
— F.K. Plous, Chicago
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
