Senator Tom Cotton: Send In the Troops

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www.nytimes.com

Opinion | Tom Cotton: Send In the Troops (Published 2020)

The nation must restore order. The military stands ready.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

Send In the Troops​

This week, rioters have plunged many American cities into anarchy, recalling the widespread violence of the 1960s.

New York City suffered the worst of the riots Monday night, as Mayor Bill de Blasio stood by while Midtown Manhattan descended into lawlessness. Bands of looters roved the streets, smashing and emptying hundreds of businesses. Some even drove exotic cars; the riots were carnivals for the thrill-seeking rich as well as other criminal elements.

Outnumbered police officers, encumbered by feckless politicians, bore the brunt of the violence. In New York State, rioters ran over officers with cars on at least three occasions. In Las Vegas, an officer is in “grave” condition after being shot in the head by a rioter. In St. Louis, four police officers were shot as they attempted to disperse a mob throwing bricks and dumping gasoline; in a separate incident, a 77-year-old retired police captain was shot to death as he tried to stop looters from ransacking a pawnshop. This is “somebody’s granddaddy,” a bystander screamed at the scene.
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Send in the NG.

RA has no role in this unless there’s an actual rebellion afoot.
 
Suddenly those state militias aren’t looking half bad compared to an army of Leviathan.
 
dscath said:
Operative word is “Opinion”, and we all have them. Doesn’t mean opinions are gospel. Many fellow veterans I know have opinions diametric to Sen. Cotton’s.
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Yup, right here. :raising_hand_man:
 
So what is the solution?

I especially interested in those that have provided a variation of one of these two responses: 1) Trump’s solutions are bad for the country (i.e. federal troops), or 2) Justice

In other words, if YOU are in charge of a city, what will you do TONIGHT to stop rioting and looting? What would YOU do?
 
"“We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battle space’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate,’” Mr. Mattis wrote. “At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict — a false conflict — between the military and civilian society.”

www.nytimes.com

Mattis Accuses Trump of Dividing the Nation in a Time of Crisis (Published 2020)

He “does not even pretend to try” to unite Americans, the former defense secretary said, breaking his long public silence on the president amid protests across the nation.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

To which Trump, in a startling ad hominem, called Mattis “overrated”. Trump never dealt with Mattis’ arguments.
 
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KMC said:
In other words, if YOU are in charge of a city, what will you do TONIGHT to stop rioting and looting? What would YOU do?
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I would be out there meeting with them. I would be walking around.

I would let them know I feel their pain. I would pray with them.
 
KMC said:
In other words, if YOU are in charge of a city, what will you do TONIGHT to stop rioting and looting? What would YOU do?
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  1. Establish a curfew
  2. Cut off vehicle access to commercial areas
  3. Implore community leaders and religious leaders to walk the streets to calm things down.
  4. Call for a city-wide day of healing
  5. Foster a program where people refuse to buy from street vendors
These things would help. Those who call for a military solution or power over emotional crowds are fooling themselves. I’ve seen 1968 where there was much worse arson, violence and gun battles in the streets. We don’t need to re-do that. Lessons have been learned.

Those people in charge of cities need to be more statesmen than demagogues during this crisis. There are much more effective things to do to prevent looting than to have the police start ‘knocking heads’. History has shown this.

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As Cotton wrote, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson all sent out troops in the days of desegregation.

Now, since there are obviously, anarchists and terrorists exploiting this situation, if there is widespread destruction and arson, Federal Troops could be necessary, people have died, mostly blacks from what I’ve seen.
 
PaulinVA said:
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KMC:
In other words, if YOU are in charge of a city, what will you do TONIGHT to stop rioting and looting? What would YOU do?
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I would be out there meeting with them. I would be walking around.

I would let them know I feel their pain. I would pray with them.
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OK…not a bad start. But how would you stop someone from tossing a brick through a store window, stealing the stuff and beating the store owner, if people didn’t want to meet / pray?

I’m not denigrating your answer…it has value, but, I think its reasonable that many people won’t be influenced by your outreach.
 
Isn’t that what DeBlasio is doing and in the meantime, NYC is being destroyed??
 
Nepperhan said:
  1. Establish a curfew
  2. Cut off vehicle access to commercial areas
  3. Implore community leaders and religious leaders to walk the streets to calm things down.
  4. Call for a city-wide day of healing
  5. Foster a program where people refuse to buy from street vendors
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Also, good points. Would you explain #5…I’m not sure what you mean by that one. Also, same question I had for Paulin…how would you stop someone from tossing a brick through a store window, stealing the stuff and beating the store owner, if the community leaders couldn’t stop them? There are not enough community leaders vs the number of people who have been rioting / looting.
 
KMC said:
I’m not denigrating your answer…it has value, but, I think its reasonable that many people won’t be influenced by your outreach.
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I don’t think you can look at this in one point in time. If you haven’t been out there a lot, if the people in your city don’t like you, none of what I said will be useful.

In preparation, your residents need to know that you are fair and have everyone’s best interest at heart. Your police department needs to have good rapport with all groups. It needs a good intelligence unit so you know who the bad guys are and who new “bad” people are.
 
A 77 year old black man guarding a pawnshop was shot and killed. But walking among these people asking what the problem is, is going to solve the problems. Alrighty.

Also, unofficial reports are saying citizens in North Minneapolis are requesting more police patrols to provide security.

Total innocents have been killed in all of this, that African American woman at the Davenport Iowa demonstration for one. One usually doesn’t think of Iowa as being some hotbed of strife.
 
Victoria33 said:
As Cotton wrote, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson all sent out troops in the days of desegregation.
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Not to bust heads! There is a big difference. Cotton would have bodies lying in the streets

And I bet Cotton thought differently about military invasion of Ruby Ridge and Waco, TX.
 
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KMC said:
OK…not a bad start. But how would you stop someone from tossing a brick through a store window, stealing the stuff and beating the store owner, if people didn’t want to meet / pray?
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Obviously all brick throwers cannot be stopped. Store owners don’t need to be present. I’m of two minds: A store owner could fend people off with a firearm but there is a definite question of raising the conflict to a gun battle. Owners don’t need to die over inventory.

As to #5, when I was doing clean up where stores had been looted, there was a real community effort with group participation, donated water bottles, even hot dogs!

There were also guys on the same street selling merchandise out of wheeled luggage! Buying that stuff would make the thievery pay. As I posted on our community website, don’t buy from street vendors if you don’t like the looting. It won’t change anything but it will show the thieves that what they stole is valueless.
 
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PaulinVA said:
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KMC:
I’m not denigrating your answer…it has value, but, I think its reasonable that many people won’t be influenced by your outreach.
Click to expand...
I don’t think you can look at this in one point in time. If you haven’t been out there a lot, if the people in your city don’t like you, none of what I said will be useful.

In preparation, your residents need to know that you are fair and have everyone’s best interest at heart. Your police department needs to have good rapport with all groups. It needs a good intelligence unit so you know who the bad guys are and who new “bad” people are.
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I’m not disagreeing, but there is an immediate need to address. If the local government can’t or won’t address the immediate issues, the people will take the law into their own hands. So, a case in point…how do you feel about this news story? Was the owner right or wrong, and if wrong, what should he have done instead?

6abc.com

Man shot, killed during burglary attempt at South Philadelphia gun store, police say

Philadelphia police said one person is dead following a shooting inside a gun store early Tuesday.
6abc.com 6abc.com
 
KMC said:
So, a case in point…how do you feel about this news story? Was the owner right or wrong, and if wrong, what should he have done instead?
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I think the use of deadly force was justified. I would prefer the Police had stationed a car there (to protect gun stores during protests) or a security firm was used, but this is okay, too.
 
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