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Pentagon moves about 1,600 Army troops into the Washington region
He said the troops were on "heightened alert status" but "are not participating in defense support to civil authority operations."
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Military police officers are restraining a protestor near the White House on June 1, 2020 as demonstrations against
George Floyd's death continue. - Police fired tear gas outside the White House late Sunday as anti-racism protestors again took to the streets to voice fury at police brutality, and major US cities were put under
curfew to suppress rioting.With the Trump administration branding instigators of six nights of rioting as domestic
terrorists, there were more confrontations between protestors and police and fresh outbreaks of looting.
Local US leaders appealed to citizens to give constructive outlet to their rage over the death of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis, while night-time curfews were imposed in cities including Washington, Los Angeles and Houston. (AFP/Roberto Schmidt)
T
he Pentagon has moved about 1,600 US Army troops into the Washington, D.C., region, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, after several nights of violent protests in the city.
"Active duty elements are postured on military bases in the National Capitol Region but are not in Washington, D.C.," Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said in a statement.
He said the troops were on "heightened alert status" but "are not participating in defense support to civil authority operations."
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has floated the idea of taking control of Washington's police department amid nationwide protests over police brutality, according to media reports on Tuesday.
US President Donald Trump said in remarks in the White House Rose Garden on Monday he would deploy thousands of soldiers and law enforcement officers to halt violence in the US capital and threatened to do the same in other cities.
"I think you heard the president yesterday that he wanted a show of force in D.C. and we know that they examined a lot of ways to do that," Muriel Bowser, the city's mayor, told reporters on Tuesday.
Her office told reporters the Trump administration had floated the idea of federalizing the district's 4,000-member police force, the Washington Post and the local NBC affiliate reported earlier.
The district's Metropolitan Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Washington, D.C. is among several US cities engulfed by protests sparked by the death of George Floyd, an African-American man who died in police custody in Minneapolis after an officer, who was later fired and charged with murder and manslaughter, pressed his knee onto Floyd's neck for some nine minutes.
Protesters outside the White House were forcibly pushed back and reported being tear-gassed by police on Monday before Trump walked to a nearby church.
A White House spokesman said the US Park Police were reacting after the protesters ignored orders to clear the area. The US Park Police confirmed the statement and said smoke canisters and pepper balls were employed.
Washington, D.C.'s special status means its 700,000 residents pay federal taxes but don't have political representation in the US capitol, and local politicians have less control over law enforcement.
US state governors are in control of the local national guard, but in Washington the guard reports to the president. The city is also home to dozens of federal agencies with their own active law enforcement.
The protests come as millions of Americans are unemployed as a result of the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, which has sickened 1.8 million and killed more than 105,000 people in the United States
