The US National Guard force deployed in Washington began carrying weapons on Sunday night, the US armed forces announced, following President Donald Trump's decision to send the army to the city to "cleanse" it of crime.
The approximately 2.200 special forces soldiers "began to wear their service weapons," the corps said in a statement.
These soldiers are not authorized to use force except "as a means of last resort in response to an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury," the document clarifies.
Republican President Trump claims that Washington has suffered a "gang invasion" and that the deployment of the military is necessary to "clean it up."
He had already sent the National Guard and hundreds of Marines in June to Los Angeles, amid large protests, marred by incidents, against his government's immigration policy.
Washington police statistics show, contrary to what the head of state says, that violent crime decreased between 2023 and 2024, but this decrease occurred after a rapid increase in the period after the coronavirus pandemic.
Donald Trump has repeatedly accused Democratic Mayor Maryl Bowser of releasing "false" statistics and threatened that the federal government would take full control of the city.
Most of the National Guardsmen were sent to Washington by Republican governors in West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee.
National Guard reservists report to the governor of each American state and can in theory only be deployed in the event of a national emergency, for example a natural disaster, at the request of the federal state and with the green light of the governor.
Their role is not to intervene to deal with crime, riots or demonstrations.
In addition to the military, members of federal law enforcement agencies have also been sent to Washington, in particular the federal police (FBI), the police agency responsible for immigration (ICE) and the drug enforcement agency (DEA).
Source: skai.gr
