While
being the smartest guy about everything is in my job description
(as
TRKOF &S), I'm afraid that here, the gig is up. This
caught my eye earlier in the week, and I admit to being somewhat
disoriented by it all.
DOD FM 19-15 manual (CIVIL
DISTURBANCES) looked to me like something
Janet Napolitano and Barack Obama have printed for distribution later,
like after the election. I had to double check the issue date. Yep.
1975. Because it clearly outlines how the Executive branch can
mobilize our Army and Air Force (but not the Navy and Marines) to quell
"civil disturbances."
What gob smacked me was that my casual knowledge of the Posse
Comitatus Act led me to believe that the President's power to use our
military domestically, extended
to mobilizing a state's National Guard, as Eisenhower
did in the
Little Rock school desegregation. My quick review of both
documents
(sample below in a Rollover) indicates that a
tyrant President (Pray God we never have one) can use our military
against us. All he has to do is provoke the population into
something
he calls a civil disturbance".
This room is full of people more knowledgeable than I on this subject,
and I hope for your comments. Here' Wikipedia on Posse
Comitatus, and
here's the Civil
Disturbance manual in .pdf form. And here's something
in case you just don't care.
|
Rodger - My MP company relieved a contingent of 82nd Airborne at a riot site during Nixon's inaugural parade and during the MLK riots and some of the antiwar demonstrations in 1969, there were regular Army units deployed in DC. The battalion of Marines at 8th & I in DC are trained for such contingencies also. DC, being a Federal District, may qualify for that kind of employment where states could not. Have a good civil rights lawyer?
ReplyDeleteLt. Col. Gen. Tailgunner dick
I guess it's always been the case that freedom is contingent upon choosing good leaders and being informed.
ReplyDelete"Martial Law" seems mostly to be imposed by state governors when loca law enforcement breaks down in the face disasters or riots. Usually it involve the States National Guard. All in all it is a tricky thing.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_mlaw.html
During the Watts' riot in California and the Detroit riots when the National Guard was called out the Guard did not fool around. Federal troops were called out to enforce school integration during the Eisenhower administration. What concerns me is not so much the National Guard or the Federal military but all these armed wanabe's in the various executive departments and the over use of SWAT by sheriff's especially to serve warrants for misdemeanors.
The DC riots of 1968 had one odd feature. A friend of mine who was in the Air National Guard at Andrews AFB at the time was called up. As an officer, he was put in charge of several enlisted personnel.
ReplyDeleteThey were assigned to a street area in DC and issued rifles ... but no ammunition. My friend didn't like that and protested that his people would be placed in danger without a means of defending themselves. He was ignored. So he went to a gun shop in Maryland and bought ammo. Then he gave it to his people.
The leadership was pissed, and relieved him, but he made his point. The riots died down soon after that anyway, but to his people he was a real hero.
Rodge, please stop reading so much Boing Boing. They're a bunch of Commies. Literally. Especially Cory Doctorow
ReplyDeleteof course you realize that it's an out-of-date version of the manual you have posted. the CURRENT version (dtd 18 April 2005)of that particular Field Manual is easily found at...
ReplyDeletehttp://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/fm3_19x15.pdf
RetRsvMike
"Please don't read .... "?
ReplyDeleteWhat an odd request from a "philosopher."
By the by, what was it I said (ever) wherein you saw Doctrow's hand at work? Srsly.
Thanks Gen. Mike, but I have no fire in my belly to become expert in the subject. What set me off here was that 1957 manual. I'm always surprised to find old stuff like that from when I was in the trenches at the Marne, and never knew about. Especially since I used to love reading old manuals.
ReplyDeleteDoes the new manual counter anything significant? Would appreciate any brief.
And here I thought they were just gonna slaughter us all using UAVs.
ReplyDeleteSkoonj - During those riots, the MSM made a point of saying the troops are using restraint and don't have ammunition. I was in the DC Army Guard at the time and we were issued ammo - 100 rds 7.62, some .45, 12 ga. buckshot and tear gas by the case. We were kinda pissed at the newsies, because we ran into instances where some perp would say something like "fuck you, you ain't got no bullets I ain't scared of you." Well, we got to the streets a day late in the MLK riot and things were out of hand, so our ROE said let the looting continue, but use lethal force if a life was in danger. Besides more direct things like shooting, beating and stabbing, we were instructed to shoot anyone about to toss a Molotov cocktail. We were sworn as DC "Special Police", so we could have arrest powers. After the fires were out, we manned roadblocks to cordon off the riot sectors and enforce a curfew. We caught people with weapons, and one group going in had dynamite in the trunk. We were always loaded and locked for those stops, although officially we weren't supposed to do that. Approaching a dark car with dark occupants at night is edgy. The guy approaching the driver's door always had the 12 ga.
ReplyDeleteFog of war and all that.
Lt. Col. Gen. Tailgunner dick
Look, then, for civil disturbances to be started in swing states with Democrat governors. Republican governors will not allow disturbances to interfere with voting, democrats will use the opportunity to finagle the counting.
ReplyDeleteThere was a unique power outage in Bridgeport, CT, last election, when the Republican was ahead; several voting precincts were closed, then allowed to stay open several hours late to "make up." Behold, the democrat won.
well, since it WAS my own line of work for awhile there before retirement, I didn't see anything particularly sinister in it....
ReplyDeletestandard stuff, standard updates, all routine procedures for controlling and dealing with civil disturbances.... a worthy training task for all Military Police...
RetRsvMike