US Marines Witnessed Detaining A US Citizen In Los Angeles

Legal Issues

from the kicking-out-the-glass-in-the-Overton-Window dept

As Mike Masnick noted late last week while covering yet another extremely disturbing development in the ongoing horror show that is our current government, the Trump Administration isn’t fucking around. It wants to destroy America so it can have the only kind of America it’s willing to put up with: one it can rule, rather than lead.

When a federal official can announce that military forces will remain in American cities until democratically elected leaders are removed, then violently detain a Senator for asking questions about it, constitutional government has effectively ended. This isn’t creeping authoritarianism—it’s the active dismantling of democratic institutions in real time.

That federal official was DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. The democratically elected person who was violently detained for daring to interrupt Noem’s self-glorifying press conference was Senator Alex Padilla from California, who is the ranking member of a Senate subcommittee that directly oversees the DHS.

The authoritarianism isn’t creeping. It’s everywhere. But its primary focus right now is California.

First, Trump violated the law by commandeering National Guard forces that are supposed to be left to the discretion of the state they serve. In this case, 2,000 California National Guard members were sent to Los Angeles for extremely vague reasons. Unlike the massive rioting that occurred in 1992, the anti-mass deportation protests in California have been mostly peaceful with anything resembling a riot contained to a very small part of downtown Los Angeles.

Despite the lack of widespread violence and destruction, the Defense Department added 700 Marines to the mix, escalating this past the illegal hijacking of California’s National Guard (without the permission or request of the state of California) to the direct deployment of the US soldiers to help police protests that local law enforcement appeared to have pretty much fully contained without outside intervention.

That extra step is hugely problematic, especially if Marines start pitching in with law enforcement work — something they’re explicitly forbidden from doing. And yet, here they are, doing cop work for cops, something captured on video and (unbelievably) confirmed by the Defense Department:

The official confirmation that US Marines are detaining people in Los Angeles was obtained by Reuters.

Asked about the incident, the U.S. military’s Northern Command spokesperson said active duty forces “may temporarily detain an individual in specific circumstances.”

“Any temporary detention ends immediately when the individual(s) can be safely transferred to the custody of appropriate civilian law enforcement personnel,” a spokesperson said.

Another photo posted at Reuters shows the man’s hands are zip-tied behind him while a Marine restrains him by holding his shoulder. The ugly irony is that the man detained by Trump’s martial law trial run is an Army veteran who obtained his US citizenship via military service and was only trying to access services at the local Department of Veterans Affairs office.

Sure, this may seem like a small thing. But only if this is the only thing you see. Trump and DoD head Pete Hegseth have sent military members to the streets of Los Angeles. Administration officials have affirmatively stated there’s no end date for this mini-occupation and have actually said OUT LOUD that the ultimate goal is to remove elected leaders that disagree with them and their efforts.

This is a direct quote of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, taken from the press conference where she stood idly by as a US senator was grabbed by armed officers and thrown to the ground:

We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into this city.

Sure, there may be a bit of performative hyperbole thrown in there. And, given that this is coming from a person who doesn’t know the definition of habeas corpus, there’s also the possibility Noem doesn’t understand some of the larger words she used during this press conference.

But make no mistake about it: if the Trump Administration thinks it can get away with a full military occupation of Los Angeles, it definitely will attempt to do it. What’s happening now is the administration testing the waters while manufacturing the provocations it needs to move forward with the next step. Shrug this isolated instance off if you dare. It’s not going to remain an anomaly for long, not when most of the Republican party is actively cheering on the use of military force against their fellow citizens.

Filed Under: dhs, donald trump, fascism, ice, marines, martial law, mass deportation, national guard