One small business owner in the city, whose property was graffitied during the protests, was supportive of Trump’s strong-arm tactics.
“I think it’s needed to stop the vandalism,” she told AFP, declining to give her name.
Others were horrified.
“They’re meant to be protecting us, but instead, they’re like, being sent to attack us,” Kelly Diemer, 47, told AFP. “This is not a democracy anymore.”
Police have detained dozens of protesters in LA in recent days, while authorities in San Francisco and other US cities have also made arrests.
“INCREDIBLY RARE”
Trump’s use of the military is an “incredibly rare” move for a US president, Rachel VanLandingham, a professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles and a former lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force, told AFP.
The National Guard, a fully equipped reserve armed forces, is usually controlled by state governors and used typically on US soil in response to natural disasters.
The Guard has not been deployed by a president over the objections of a state governor since 1965, at the height of the civil rights movement.
Deployment of regular troops, such as the Marines, on US soil is even more unusual.
US law largely prevents the use of the military as a policing force, absent an insurrection. Speculation is growing that Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act, giving him a free hand to use regular troops for law enforcement around the country.
The Pentagon said late on Monday that Trump had authorised an extra 2,000 state guardsmen to LA.
The state of California has sued to block the use of the Guard troops, and Newsom said he would also sue against the Marines deployment.
Source: CNA
