U.S. Senate candidate Bill Hagerty on Monday encouraged U.S. President Donald Trump to use the Insurrection Act to mobilize active-duty military forces to defend communities from further acts of domestic terrorism.
Hagerty, responding to recent riots around the country, including one in Nashville Saturday, said this in a press release.
“President Trump has already taken decisive leadership in recognizing ANTIFA as a terrorist organization,” Hagerty said in the press release.
“America is rooted in the rule of law. We cannot have another night of violence. It has to stop now. Period. If we don’t, it propagates lawlessness. To better protect our cities and communities from further danger, President Trump should use the Insurrection Act to its fullest extent. Mobilizing our military forces across the country will show that we will not tolerate domestic terrorism.”
According to Berkeley Law School’s website, the Act enables the President to deploy the military “to suppress, in any State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.” An amended Act expands the language of the original Act to include natural disasters, epidemics, or other serious public health emergencies, terrorist attacks or incidents, or other conditions the website said.
As The Tennessee Star reported, several thousand protestors descended upon Nashville’s Legislative Plaza Saturday on behalf of George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis while in police custody. Many protestors carried signs demanding that the government either defund or abolish the police. The crowd, composed of whites and blacks, chanted “Black Lives Matter” and “No Justice, No Peace” many times over.
Later in the day, and after Saturday’s rally, protestors resorted to violence — by vandalizing the Metro Courthouse and, later, parts of lower Broadway.
Nashville law enforcement officials arrested a total of 28 people during Saturday’s riots or after that night’s 10 p.m. curfew, according to the Metro government’s website.
Metro Nashville Police, as of Monday, determined that the protestors left 30 damaged businesses and buildings in their wake.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Rioters Burn Minneapolis” by Lorie Shaull CC2.0.
Disclaimer: I am not a Hagerty supporter.
Applying the insurrection act to the current rioting is consistent with what has been done by many former Presidents both Democrat and Republican. The safety of law abiding citizens is being threatened by anarchists who do not respect the rule of law. Essentially they are attempting to overthrow government rule. Exactly the reasons that the Insurrection Act was enacted.
Interesting that Hagerty would immediately suggest that President Trump use military forces against citizens. This might play well in Tennessee, but maybe not so much in Michigan, Arizona, Georgia or some swing States.
But he don’t care, by November, with the primary over, Hags will be cruising his way to the Senate, to join his buddy Mitt. While the President, and America as we know it, will be in the fight of their life. But that’s OK, he’ll have us back on the Bush-plan.