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Discussion (12 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews
“It’s like they brought people here from all across the country, just to be here [in Washington DC]...”
What about the politicians, and all of the people hired to work for the politicians? Looks like about 29% of the population were born there. Is it a bad thing that our troops have a common, shared experience of spending time in the US Capital?
The local news has detailed how some of them have themselves become victims of crime while here. Including of course the famous and horrible shooting when they were specifically targeted.
The legality is a big question mark. The District is essentially a federal base where a bunch of people live and work. That said, there is a broad federal prohibition against using military as law enforcement. But the National Guard is not quite the active duty military either. And they’re not really doing law enforcement.
I guess a future administration could decide to court martial an NG officer for executing unlawful orders, but that seems like it would be political suicide. Seems pretty unlikely.
Mostly they are for show, like so many other things this administration does. Just another aspect of the overall “for show” era of the U.S.
Trump has already stated many times, not jokingly that he wants a third term. He acknowledges that he can't be elected for a third term. However a number of legal "experts", including noted crackpot Alan Dershowitz, have noted that election is not the only route to a third term.
I guess more violent crime would have been a small price to pay if it had made Trump look bad.
Is that a bad thing?
I don't view metal detectors and huge cast concrete reception desks as a good thing, I view them as indicators that earlier interdiction has failed; I try not to hang around places like that, unless I know that there are also actually people with guns who are trained to use them.