Washington, DC—”Not on Our Watch” is the message Veterans’ are sending the President.
The two beige Humvees parked on the bricks looked like they belonged at a military base instead of outside Union Station as part of a wave of police forces occupying DC. No one knew that better than the group of Veterans gathered in their shadow.
Last month, Trump ordered National Guard members from at least six states into the Nation’s Capital to lower high crime rates, even though Trump’s own Department of Justice stated that violent crime in D.C. reached a 30-year low. Trump also sent federal agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other federal police agencies. Trump has also federalized the DC Metropolitan Police Department as part of his so-called “crime emergency,” further ramping up paramilitary control of the city.
Chilled by the idea of military assets rolling through American streets, Veterans were quick to respond.
Russell Ellis, also known as Jolly_Good_Ginger on TikTok, organized a 24/7 veterans’ sit-in at Union Station to protest the massive police deployment. In the week since it started, the protest has drawn veterans from around the country to DC. They promised they won’t leave until the Guard does.
Ellis shared that “using troops on American soil undermines the public’s trust in the military.” America’s active-duty forces are governed by the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally prohibits the military from acting as law enforcement. Although the Act doesn’t always apply to the National Guard, the separation between military forces and police is a sign of a healthy democracy. Citizens get anxious when that line starts to blur, and this is for two good reasons: Kent State.
On May 4, 1970, then Ohio Governor James Rhodes sent the Ohio State National Guard to control an anti-Vietnam War-Cambodia Campaign protest at Kent State University, a working class college. The guardsmen were not trained to interact with civilians exercising First Amendment rights during street protests nor were they skilled at handling civil matters. As a result, they shot and killed four unarmed students, and wounded nine others. It was a seminal moment in US history and it triggered a national referendum on the Vietnam war and turned the tide of opinion against the military and its role in our Republic. It was also exactly what the Posse Comitatus Act was meant to prevent. And a repeat of Kent State is something that could happen in DC, given the right circumstances of anger, fear, and suspicion which currently exists in DC.
Ellis also explained that the National Guard’s presence in D.C. threatened national security. He feared it would lower the military’s enlistment rates and hurt retention, meaning that fewer prospective recruits would join and current service members would increasingly leave, taking their knowledge and talent with them.
Ellis provided a site which Veterans can access for more information on what they can do to get involved. The site reads, “Now, as we see the National Guard activated and deployed to our streets – this is NOT in keeping with that OATH nor that DUTY. This is a blatant MILITARY OCCUPATION of American cities.“
The sit-in website, rememberyouroath.org, outlined three main goals:
- Inform our National Guard siblings of their rights to refuse unlawful orders. Educate and encourage.
- Hold National Guard officers to account for accepting the orders to INTIMIDATE the American people.
- Respond to ICE and MPD checkpoints and stops throughout the city to protest, shame them, and assist their victims.
To support the first goal, they hung a sign about the GI rights hotline mere yards from the National Guard’s Humvees. The hotline provides free, confidential information about military regulations, and can direct callers to legal resources if needed. With Trump escalating military involvement, the hotline is a crucial tool for service members who fear they were given illegal orders.
The veterans also displayed the federal employee’s oath of office, reminding the federal law enforcement officers flocking to D.C. that they, too, swore to defend the Constitution from “enemies both foreign and domestic.”
At a brief address, Ellis instructed the gathering to remain peaceful, but vigilant. The previous night, a member was arrested for using washable sidewalk chalk, which he sarcastically noted was apparently, “more dangerous than pedophiles, apparently.” Earlier in the week, another veteran with the group was arrested by the Secret Service after burning the American flag across from the White House in protest of Trump’s instruction to prosecute flag burning. The Supreme Court ruled that flag burning was protected First Amendment speech in 1989.
The founder of American Opposition—one of the organizers behind June’s No Kings Day protests—Carlos Álvarez-Aranyos, joined those gathered at Union Station. He planed to host a rally there on September 2nd to “welcome” Congress back to session. Álvarez-Aranyos previously worked with Veterans’ groups at the June 6th ‘Unite for Veterans’ event in D.C.
The 24/7 sit-in was the beginning of what Álvarez-Aranyos viewed as “phase two.” The first phase of his work was focused on activating people through a series of protests, such as No Kings Day and Unite for Veterans. Phase two will direct that energy into pressuring vulnerable republicans and ineffective democrats. “Where it’s legal, we’ll show up at their homes, we’ll show up at their offices, at restaurants where they eat,” he explained.
Álvarez-Aranyos was confident that the American people were ready. In fact, he launched the second phase earlier than he expected. “13 million people are willing to get out and fight these battles. Now, we get to the work of aiming our efforts at people who need it.”
