He stressed that protests were “nowhere near” the level required to deploy the troops.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell sharply countered Donald Trump’s claims that the city needed National Guard support, emphasizing Wednesday that protests were “nowhere near” that level.
McDonnell’s remarks come after Trump cited the police chief as validating the White House’s decision to send in troops to address largely peaceful protests over immigration raids.
When asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins if Trump had correctly described his position, McDonnell disputed the president’s statement.
“No, we were not in a position to request the National Guard,” he said. “We’re nowhere near a level where we would be reaching out to the governor for National Guard at this stage. And my hope is that things are going in the right direction now and that we wouldn’t have had to have done that, or we won’t either.”
We can beat them and shoot the journalists with rubber bullets just fine, thank you.
Sending in the troops is a grievous insult to their well-established ability to abuse the people of Los Angeles without help.
I get what you’re saying, and you’re not wrong, but I seriously doubt that protests would have escalated to the point that LAPD would be using pepper balls, rubber bullets, and tear gas if not for the national guard being federalized. To me that was an escalation in itself.
It’d be like 3-4 officers standing in a line across from protesters just watching in case things were to get out of hand. Then all of a sudden a sheriff from another state insults the protesters, sends 20 other officers in riot gear to stand next to you, and they start walking at the protesters to intimidate and beat them. So sure LAPD is more than capable of being huge pieces of shit, but what is the sheriff supposed to do in this situation? Pull his officers off the streets entirely? It’s still his jurisdiction. That’d be wholely irresponsible.
On one hand I’m glad he announced this, but he also needs to address the gross incompetence going on within his police force as well. The world is watching and his officers are shooting fucking journalists with rubber bullets. Some sort of statement showing he’s aware and that disciplinary action is being pursued would be a start.
Did anything even happen to the cop that shot that journalist? Seems like everyone just accepted this instead of bringing charges or vigilanteism
As far as I know nothing has happened at all.
He got drafted into the IDF
I doubt anything has happened or will happen. In Florida today they’re now saying it’s OK to run over protesters. Hopefully, they run over the magats instead.
please, I beg of you, understand that it is so, so, so much worse than incompetence.
how can you see that officer raise his gun and fire at that journalist while she was on camera, to the point where he obviously had absolutely nothing at all going on around him, and wildly understate that as “gross incompetence”?
No you’re right I should have used different phrasing. It’s not incompetence it’s straight up just being a piece of shit.
What gross incompetence? That would imply that it was unintentional
Yeah you’re right. Gross incompetence would imply fault due to lack of training or ability to perform the job. The reality would be more just failure to be a fucking human being. I should have phrased that better.
And that woman they beat with batons, and deliberately trampled with a horse… That behavior is unacceptable, that is criminal behavior. Those are actions taken by criminals, and they need to be identified, arrested and taken to trial.
Thankfully someone was filming from above them so that there is a record.
I mean he’s not wrong.
LAPD has plenty of experience of violently suppressing the residents.
They’ve certainly proved capable of shooting reporters in the back.
Yeah, they’re perfectly capable of shooting reporters on their own. They don’t need any federal assistance with that.
Well there you go. Straight from the horse’s mouth.
Did the police chief ever say why they started assisting ICE without the approval of the city or state government?
I’m not a blue line guy and this is the bare minimum but it is nice that at least they are willing to outright say this is unnecessary and escalatory. At least that’s what I’m gleaming from this.
In today’s news, he lied again.
The only truths (most of them) the convicted rapist/felon rump told were on the campaign trail. In no uncertain terms he told everyone exactly what he was going to do and he is doing it now.
