Leaked: Pentagon Floats ‘Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force’ For Domestic Law Enforcement

An apparent Pentagon leaker recently slipped the Washington Post a plan proposed by the DoD for a permanent, federalized “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force” composed of National Guard troops to deploy at a moment’s notice to American streets for civilian law enforcement activities.

Related: ‘Patriot Front’ Masked Militia Hits New York for Day Trip

Via The Washington Post (emphasis added):

“The Trump administration is evaluating plans that would establish a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force” composed of hundreds of National Guard troops tasked with rapidly deploying into American cities facing protests or other unrest, according to internal Pentagon documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

The plan calls for 600 troops to be on standby at all times so they can deploy in as little as one hour, the documents say. They would be split into two groups of 300 and stationed at military bases in Alabama and Arizona, with purview of regions east and west of the Mississippi River, respectively.

Cost projections outlined in the documents indicate that such a mission, if the proposal is adopted, could stretch into the hundreds of millions of dollars should military aircraft and aircrews also be required to be ready around-the-clock. Troop transport via commercial airlines would be less expensive, the documents say…

The documents, marked “predecisional,” are comprehensive and contain extensive discussion about the potential societal implications of establishing such a program. They were compiled by National Guard officials and bear time stamps as recent as late July and early August. Fiscal 2027 is the earliest this program could be created and funded through the Pentagon’s traditional budgetary process, the documents say, leaving unclear whether the initiative could begin sooner through an alternative funding source.”

In what may or may not be directly related news, I reported last year that the Biden DoD had revised its protocols in September to allow for the federal deputization of defense intelligence personnel for lethal domestic law enforcement purposes.

Via updated DoD Directive 5240.01, Section 3.3.a.(2)(c) (emphasis added):

“Subject to Paragraph 3.1., Defense Intelligence Components may provide personnel to assist a Federal department or agency, including a Federal law enforcement agency, or a State or local law enforcement agency when lives are in danger, in response to a request for such assistance, in accordance with the following approval authorities:

a. Secretary of Defense Approval.

(1) The Secretary of Defense may approve any type of requested permissible assistance described in Paragraph 3.2.

(2) The decision to approve requests for these types of permissible assistance described in Paragraph 3.2. to law enforcement agencies and other civil authorities are reserved to the Secretary of Defense:

(a) Provision of personnel to support response efforts for civil disturbances, which may also require Presidential authorization.

(b) DoD response to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosive incidents.

(c) Assistance in responding with assets with potential for lethality, or any situation in which it is reasonably foreseeable that providing the requested assistance may involve the use of force that is likely to result in lethal force, including death or serious bodily injury. It also includes all support to civilian law enforcement officials in situations where a confrontation between civilian law enforcement and civilian individuals or groups is reasonably anticipated.”

A tangent:

Sycophantic “conservative” commentators on Team Red, lacking in any real conviction, are definitely going to reflexively rationalize how the ‘Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force’ is justified and necessary because it would ostensibly be used to crack down on the Antifa hordes currently running riots across American cities.

Just understand that, if the Brandon entity were doing the exact same thing, they’d raise Cain about it.

Call me a purist or a contrarian or whatever, but it seems to me that if you profess to believe in civil liberties, moral clarity and ideological consistency dictates that you defend them regardless of who is attempting to subvert them. And an omnipotent federal police force — ever-expanding in scope and scale — is fully incompatible with a Constitutional system.

Via Brennan Center for Justice (emphasis added):

“The Posse Comitatus Act consists of just one sentence: “Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”

In practice, this means that members of the military who are subject to the law may not participate in civilian law enforcement unless doing so is expressly authorized by a statute or the Constitution…

Members of the National Guard are rarely covered by the Posse Comitatus Act because they usually report to their state or territory’s governor. That means they are free to participate in law enforcement if doing so is consistent with state law. However, when Guard personnel are called into federal service, or “federalized,” they become part of the federal armed forces, which means they are bound by the Posse Comitatus Act until they are returned to state control…

There are no constitutional exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act. The law allows only for express exceptions, and no part of the Constitution expressly empowers the president to use the military to execute the law. This conclusion is consistent with the law’s legislative history, which suggests that its drafters chose to include the language about constitutional exceptions as part of a face-saving compromise, not because they believed any existed.”

Related: German Minister Announces Pre-Crime Surveillance, Prosecution of ‘Far-Right Extremists’

Alas, this is what political tribalism get us: a constant state of increasing government power but, due to balkanization, never a broad enough popular resistance to slow it down, much less stop it, because half of the population, give or take, is supportive of whatever new powers the government grants itself when who they perceive to be their political allies are (nominally) running the show.

Benjamin Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile (now available in paperback), is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.

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