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When the National Guard Went to L.A. in 1992, the Situation Was Far Different.

When the National Guard Went to L.A. in 1992, the Situation Was Far Different.

New York Times21 hours ago

Some Republicans have drawn parallels between President Trump's dispatching of National Guard troops to Los Angeles on Saturday and what happened in 1992, when soldiers and Marines were sent to the Los Angeles area to restore order after the Rodney King riots.
But that was a far different situation.
In contrast with the isolated skirmishes seen in Los Angeles County over the past few days, there were neighborhoods in 1992 that had devolved into something resembling a lawless dystopia. Drivers were pulled from cars and beaten. Buildings were burned. Businesses were looted. In all, 63 people died during the riots, including nine who were shot by the police.
The mayhem, which went on for six days, was rooted in Black residents' anger over years of police brutality. It ignited after four officers were found not guilty of using excessive force against Mr. King, a Black motorist who had been pulled over after a high-speed chase, even though videotape evidence clearly showed the officers brutally beating him. That anger had erupted before, notably in the Watts riots of 1965.
The violence in 1992 was also fueled by tensions between the Black and Korean American communities in the area, and by the shooting death of a Black girl by a Korean American shopkeeper. It got so far out of control that major-league sports events were postponed or moved to safer locations, dusk-to-dawn curfews were imposed, schools were closed and mail delivery was withheld in some neighborhoods.
On the third day of the violence, President George H.W. Bush activated the National Guard at the request of Gov. Pete Wilson and Mayor Tom Bradley of Los Angeles. Thousands of Army and Marine troops were sent into Los Angeles as well. Caravans including Humvees and other armored vehicles rolled into the city along the freeways.
The protests of 2025 bear little if any comparison to the widespread upheaval and violence of 1992. The protesters have directed their anger mainly at ICE agents, not at fellow residents, and the demonstrations have so far done relatively little damage to buildings or businesses.
'It doesn't appear to me that they're anywhere near close to needing the National Guard now,' said Joe Domanick, an author who has written extensively about the Los Angeles police. 'It looks like an opportunity for Trump to clamp down and use the military in ways that aren't necessary yet.'
Much of the anger today is emanating from Latinos, the main group being targeted by federal immigration agents.
Latinos make up a plurality of Los Angeles residents, hold many powerful political positions in the region and account for nearly half of the officers in the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
'These organizations are going to be caught in the middle,' Mr. Domanick said. 'They've invested in community policing, to the extent that they could, and many of these officers have parents and grandparents who were probably undocumented. It's a very complex situation.'

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L.A. immigration protests latest: California sues Trump admin. over National Guard deployment, president says he would support arresting Newsom
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L.A. immigration protests latest: California sues Trump admin. over National Guard deployment, president says he would support arresting Newsom

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Kristi Noem defends the deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles protests
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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in an interview over the weekend that National Guard troops deployed amid protests in the Los Angeles area are for "the safety of the communities that are being impacted by these riots." "They're there at the direction of the president in order to keep peace and allow people to be able to protest, but also to keep law and order," Noem told Margaret Brennan, moderator of "Face the Nation" on CBS News. President Donald Trump ordered about 2,000 National Guard troops to be deployed as police in riot gear clashed with protesters opposed to the actions his administration has taken against undocumented immigrants. However, California Gov. Gavin Newsom formally requested that Trump withdraw the troops, writing that their deployment "seems intentionally designed to inflame the situation." "We didn't have a problem until Trump got involved," Newsom said in a June 8 X post. "This is a serious breach of state sovereignty – inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they're actually needed." In response to a question about Newsom's criticism of Trump, Noem said that "if (Newsom) was doing his job, then people wouldn't have gotten hurt the last couple of days." "The president knows that (Newsom) makes bad decisions, and that's why the president chose the safety of this community over waiting for Governor Newsom to get some sanity," she said. "That's one of the reasons why these National Guard soldiers are being federalized, so they can use their special skill set to keep peace." Noem, though, previously threatened then-President Joe Biden when Democrats said he should federalize the National Guard in Texas in response to the state's anti-immigration efforts, USA TODAY reported. "If Joe Biden federalizes the National Guard, that would be a direct attack on states' rights," Noem said in an X post on Feb. 6, 2024, when she was still governor of South Dakota. In the CBS News interview, Noem also criticized Minnesota's response to the George Floyd protests in 2020. "We're not going to let a repeat of 2020 happen," she said. Noem, 53, began her political career in 2006 when she was elected to the South Dakota House of Representatives. She served two terms. In 2010, she successfully ran for South Dakota's lone seat in the U.S House of Representatives. Noem served four terms in the House before taking on another role: South Dakota's governor. She was elected as the state's first female governor in 2019. Noem was confirmed as Homeland Security secretary on Jan. 25. This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: What did Kristi Noem say about the Los Angeles protests?

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