Missions
They both wear uniforms. They both carry guns. And, they both hold a special and usually honored place in American life. The local police and the National Guard are a lot alike, but they are NOT the same. And to quote Robert Frost, “…that makes all the difference.”
It’s all about missions. Proctologists and Orthopedic surgeons are both doctors. They’re both trained in medicine. But I wouldn’t want a Proctologist to repair my shoulder, or an Orthopedic running my next colonoscopy. Police are trained to prevent and arrest people committing crimes. As part of their specialized education, they learn the communities where they work. Policing is more than just “busts”, it’s also listening to the community. That communication enables better law-enforcement.
Here in Pataskala, my elderly backyard neighbor had a “beef” with me. He didn’t feel like telling me the problem, so instead he called the police. Now, the police officer could have told him that his concern (some grass clippings encroaching on his back property line) wasn’t a police matter. But the officer didn’t. Instead, he served as a messenger, trying to solve a community problem at the lowest level. I took care of the clippings, (a phone call or a simple knock on the door would solve it). And, of course, I was annoyed that the police were involved. But I very much appreciate that the officer solved the issue.
That’s good policing, what you hope for by those with a badge.
A Well-Regulated Militia
And it’s not anywhere near the job of the National Guard. The National Guard is the real-life enactment of the Constitutional “state militia”, a localized defense force. It made perfect sense in the era when the Federal Army was small, far away, and months from “coming to the rescue”. When there was a hostile attack at the edge of the frontier, it was the militia, now termed the National Guard, who could respond with alacrity.
The National Guard is the state defense force. They are trained in the art of warfare. But they have become more than that. They are also the emergency force sent in after a widespread disaster. The Guard organizes relief efforts when the tornadoes sweep through, and does search and rescues after the floods.
And the Guard also has a role in civil unrest. Those of us who remember the Vietnam War era, remember the ultimate threat against college campus protest: calling in the National Guard.
That pitted two different groups of young people against each other: college students protesting and folks the same age (some also in college) who chose to go into the Guard. And we saw the fallacy of using troops untrained in crowd control on a college campus. Kent State, an Ohio campus of 20,000 students, became the rallying cry for protest, as ten students were shot with four killed by the Guard during a protest. Neil Young called it out: “Four Dead in Ohio”.
The National Guard does not have a badge. They are NOT trained in policing. They are NOT a substitute for effective police work. While both the Guard and Police wear uniforms, and carry guns, they are not the same.
Urban Crime
There are unacceptable levels of crime in America’s big cities. This was particularly true right after the Covid era, when crime, like inflation, rose to record levels. But most cities responded to the crisis, and crime rates (even in Chicago) are close to pre-pandemic levels. They have found some answers: more policing in communities, more cops on a “beat” that they come to know, more involvement with the community in a non-law enforcement role. All of that costs money, and the Federal government, up until January, was helping to fund those increases.
But with the second Trump Administration, much of that police support was cut. And while crime rates continued to go down, President Trump is using crime as his “niche” issue. There’s a political reality there: big cities are almost invariably run by Democrats, and Trump’s base of support is Republican, white and suburban or rural. Trump is using the fear of the big city as a cudgel to beat Democrats, cutting funding then decrying their still improving crime statistics.
The Smell of Deportations
Then there’s the whole racial issue. Most of the victims of crime in big cities are minorities. But when the National Guard arrived in Washington, DC, they were ordered to patrol the tourist areas, not where minorities live, and where the most serious crimes are committed. The Guard is for “show” there, not to reduce real crime. But, to the MAGA base, Trump sent in The Guard to get control of “them”; the same black and brown people he threatens to imprison through ICE.
Trump wants to prove that HE can do something that the local governments cannot. So he’s declares a faux emergency to Federalize the state National Guards. Once they are under Federal command, he can direct them where ever he chooses. Last week, he declared “war” on Chicago, even displaying himself as a character from the war movie of the 1980’s Apocalypse Now. Robert Duvall’s line in the movie is, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” Trump altered it to, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning.” It conflates his aggressive and illegal roundup and deportations of undocumented migrants with crime. Except, of course, that conflation isn’t true.
All Show
So it was all for show, when the armored vehicles rolled through the streets of our Nation’s Capital, as if an occupying army arrived. It had. But the Guard are not police. They ended up picking up litter, and painting fences, and laying down mulch, all at the cost to the Nation of a million dollars a day.
This week he plans on doing it again. Like California, he will declare a fake “emergency” in Illinois, Federalize the Illinois National Guard, and send them into the streets of Chicago. It’s a great spectacle, and his supporters will feel more secure if they venture to the Navy Pier or the Miracle Mile. Other “red” states wil volunteer their Guard to join in (Ohio Guardsmen are still in Washington today). But the reality is: the Guard doesn’t fight crime. And if they try to do so, with loaded weapons of war, it’s likely to become the same disaster that occurred at Kent State.
Want to spend millions of dollars to fight crime? Authorize more police on the streets, pay for more foot patrols in the high-crime neighborhoods that need them, develop alternatives to “gang life” for young people. None of that is achieved by the performance of militarizing the streets of America. That’s just for intimidating political opponents, not the criminals.
