With local streets jammed with protesters for days on end, hundreds of National Guard troops have poured into the nation’s capital.
Up to 1,000 …
With local streets jammed with protesters for days on end, hundreds of National Guard troops have poured into the nation’s capital.
Up to 1,000 have come from Tennessee; 500 were on their way Wednesday from Florida; South Carolina has sent about 400.
Yet none of them have come at the invitation of D. C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. In fact, Bowser has rejected direct offers of help from the governors of at least four states, a spokeswoman said Thursday, highlighting an ongoing, high-stakes struggle for government control during days of protests following the death of George Floyd.
The increasing military presence, with hundreds of additional troops on standby at posts outside the city, have not only frayed tensions between municipal and federal authorities but also exposed dissent within the Trump administration, where the president has threatened to deploy active-duty troops to « dominate » the streets where some protests have turned violent.
A week after Floyd’s death, the public spotlight has been largely divided between Minneapolis where the 46-year-old black man was killed by a white police officer and Washington where President Donald Trump has been at odds with his own defense chief about the role of the military in securing American cities.
Further clouding the chain of command in the capital, the Trump administration has weighed a federal takeover of D. C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, which has long secured demonstrations, inaugurations and other special events across the city.
On Thursday, Bowser vowed to fight the expanding federal presence, warning authorities in plain terms to back off.
“Know this, at no time is the mayor going to support the federal government directing MPD,” Bowser told reporters.
