Subtle Tools by Karen J. Greenberg

Author:Karen J. Greenberg
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2021-07-20T00:00:00+00:00

The War at Home

Three days after the murder, President Trump finally addressed it. “I feel very, very badly. That’s a very shocking sight.”3 He said nothing about addressing police misbehavior or institutional racism. In the weeks to come, he would start reminding the press that “more White people” died at the hands of the police than Blacks, and would begin denigrating the demonstrators.4

Protests against the use of excessive police force began the next night in Minneapolis as hundreds of protesters amassed at the police precinct, leaving graffiti on cars as well as buildings, setting fires, and looting. The police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. In cities across the country, similar protests and confrontations with police broke out. In New York City, clashes left protesters and the police wounded. Violence in Detroit, Chicago, and St, Louis led to injuries and three deaths. Reports of police using pepper spray and rubber bullets cropped up in Philadelphia and New York City. In Los Angeles, the 101 Freeway was blocked by protesters. By May 31, the National Guard had been deployed in more than two dozen states, and mayors in several cities had imposed curfews.5

On June 1, after five days of protests, Trump told the press assembled in the Rose Garden of the White House: “These are terrorists. These are terrorists,” he repeated for effect, speaking of the protesters. “They’re looking to do bad things to our country.” Latching onto the vocabulary of the war on terror, Trump was also embracing the subtle tool of imprecision in language that had contorted the word “terrorist” to apply not only to insurgent groups abroad but to a wide swath of Muslims in the United States. Now, he appropriated it for protesters in the streets of America.

Facing the danger of “terrorists,” Trump took the misplaced analogy one step further. He declared war against them at home as his predecessors had declared war against terrorists abroad. “I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults and the wanton destruction of property.” Blurring the distinction between the military and law enforcement, Trump set in motion a muddying of authorities that would continue throughout many months of protests.

Earlier that day, the president had convened a call with the country’s governors to talk about how to best respond to the protests.6 “It’s like we’re talking about war,” Trump said, “which it is a war in a certain sense, and we’re going to end it fast.” Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley joined him on the call, reinforcing Trump’s message that the military was the appropriate counterforce for the protests—and Milley, Trump announced, would lead the government’s response to the protests. A “fighter” and “a warrior,” the president reminded his listeners, Milley, who had fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, could bring his skills to the American streets. Secretary of Defense Esper took the analogy to warfare further. “We need to dominate the battle space,” Esper chimed in.

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