In protest response review, Pentagon looks at impact of police equipped like soldiers
The Pentagon is taking a closer look at the impact on military operations when local law enforcement officers are dressed and equipped like U.S. soldiers, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Army Gen. Mark Milley told Congress Thursday.
The senior defense leaders were testifying before the House Armed Services Committee on the military’s response to protests in Washington, D.C., on June 1, when controversy erupted over whether the military had participated in forcefully removing peaceful protesters from an area near the White House.
Nationwide protests that grew in intensity and sometimes included rioting followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in late May.
The Pentagon has since conducted a review into the National Guard’s response during the protests and expects to provide preliminary findings to Congress as early as next week.
One of the takeaways from the review that senior defense leaders are already discussing is the challenges that National Guard members faced when police wearing camouflage made it difficult to determine who was military and who was not, Milley said.
“You want a clear definition between that which is military and that which is police, in my view,” he said.
“You want police, local police, state police, federal police dealing with law enforcement issues, and if necessary, National Guard under governor control,” Milley said. “But you want a clear distinction. That which is police, visually - visual distinction - that which is police and that which is military. Because when you start introducing the military, you are talking a different level of effort.”
Active duty service members under federal control are prohibited by the law of Posse Comitatus from conducting law enforcement activities. National Guard members under the control of their state governors can support law enforcement, such as through crowd control.
However domestic civil unrest response is a role the National Guard is wary of performing because of the sensitivities of using the U.S. military against American civilians, National Guard Bureau Chief Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel and other state National Guard leaders have said.
“In my opinion, uniforms, I don’t care what flavor they are, Title 10, active-duty, National Guard, Reserve, uniforms being out there in law-enforcement situations is not optimal,” Lengyel said at a Brookings Institution conference last week.
Esper said he has already spoken to Lengyel and would like the after-action review to include a discussion with law enforcement about the Defense Logistics Agency’s Law Enforcement Support Office 1033 program, which transfers excess military equipment to police departments.
The program has transferred thousands of armored vehicles, camouflage clothing, tens of thousands of guns and millions of rounds of ammunition over the years to local police departments.
A McClatchy review of the 1033 program last month found the transfer of military equipment has increased in recent years. For example, 13,259 guns and gun accessories, such as assault rifles and night-vision sights were transferred to police departments from 1990 to 1999. That increased to 201,813 guns and gun accessories transferred from 2010 to 2019.
“I think we can all generally agree that if we have body armor, that would be helpful to the police to protect them, But beyond that, I would like to wait and see how our review comes out,” Esper said in a response to Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., who asked if the 1033 program had militarized local police.
The blurring of the military-police distinction with law enforcement officers dressed like soldiers led to confusion during the June 1 protest response, the defense leaders said.
For example, National Guard members did not move and were not carrying, nor did they fire, any projectiles at the crowd near the White House on June 1, Esper said.
However there were multiple law enforcement agencies at the scene, and some initial media reports inaccurately said the Guard had used force on civilians to clear them out of the Lafayette Park area.
“In the case of D.C., with all those different forces, uniforms, just simple uniforms - that became an issue,” Milley said. “Our guys are wearing camouflage uniforms, some of these policemen are in blue uniforms, others in camouflage, others in all green, etcetera,” he said.
“That became, in terms of the lessons learned, that would be something I would put in there,” Milley said of the review.
In another instance, National Guard members lent police their shields, which also led to confusion, Esper said.
“If you’re going to do that, then we’ve got to find out a way to mask the name ‘military police’ so we don’t confuse who is actually doing the crowd control,” Esper said.
This story was originally published July 9, 2020 at 5:16 PM.
