To the editor:

How is it that President Donald J. Trump has arbitrarily ordered the deployment of 4,000 members of the National Guard and 700 Marines to, reportedly, quell what he has referred to as an insurrection, as a result of anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles, who are objecting to what they consider to be improper methods being utilized by said agents in order to round up and deport perceived undocumented immigrants, while denying them their rights to due process of the law to which they are entitled? This in spite of no such request and, actually, the objection of such a national intervention by California Gov. Gavin Newsome, as well as Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who actually have condemned such actions as ordered by Trump, stating that the aforementioned situation has been basically kept well under control by state and local officials.

In actuality, the activation and deployment of the National Guard without the request or approval of the state’s governor has not occurred since 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent the National Guard to protect civil rights marchers who were threatened with violence by Alabama’s Gov. George C. Wallace, who believed, apparently, that minorities should be denied their civil rights, although U.S. law dictated otherwise.

In addition, compare Trump’s response to the current situation in Los Angeles to the actual insurrection, which he encouraged against our nation’s Capitol that took place during his first tenure as president on Jan. 6, 2021, when literally thousands of violent protesters invaded the building in order to attempt to prevent a smooth and perfectly legal transfer of power from Trump to President-elect Joe Biden.

As that time, Trump ordered his insurrectionist supporters to “fight like hell” to keep him in power, stating that the election was somehow rigged against him, and that he had actually won by a landslide. However, all evidence has been proven to be to the absolute contrary, and Trump, without question, legitimately lost the 2020 presidential election, and if he truly believed otherwise, why did he not pursue legal means, as opposed to violence, in order to resolve the issue?

As a result of Trump’s reluctance and refusal to provide adequate support of the Capitol on that fateful day, five individuals were killed and several law enforcement officers were seriously injured by the Trump-inspired rioters and, as a result, approximately 1,600 individuals were legally convicted of the violent crimes that they committed on that terrible day.

Of course, Trump refers to the aforementioned insurrectionists, incredibly, as political prisoners and patriots, and pardoned or commuted the sentences of all such criminals, immediately upon his return to office.

Obviously, Trump, who also is a convicted felon, approves of such criminal behavior, as long as such is done for his personal benefit.

Richard Hord

Martins Ferry