The First Marines of the U.S. Marine Corps Arrived in Washington for the 350th Anniversary of the Decay of Protests

“We respect, and will defend, the right to peacefully protest, but we will not tolerate violence or lawlessness in our state,” Kehoe said in a statement earlier this week. “While other states may wait for chaos to ensue, the State of Missouri is taking a proactive approach in the event that assistance is needed to support local law enforcement in protecting our citizens and communities.”

The governor ordered the troops to San Antonio and Austin ahead of the protests. The governor of Missouri had activated that state’s National Guard as a precautionary measure.

Marines will protect the Wilshire Federal Building and other federal buildings with shields and batons, but they won’t be able to arrest anyone.

The President sent Marines to Los Angeles and the California National Guard was activated in response to Gov. Newsom and LA Mayor Bass’s wishes. The first group of 700 Marines arrived on Friday.

The U.S. Army will celebrate its 250th anniversary on Saturday with a massive military parade overtaking the streets and skies of Washington, D.C., and thousands of service members participating in the big-budget spectacle.

The Los Angeles Military Parade, an Activist’s View of the U.S. Military Prowess, and the Deception of Donald Trump

Protests have generally been peaceful, but some protesters have clashed with law enforcement, set cars ablaze, and vandalized buildings with graffiti. Police have arrested dozens of people across the country.

Demonstrations across the country flared up this week, including in Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. The administration is ramping up immigration enforcement in Los Angeles, so people have been protesting all week.

Plans for commemorating the milestone anniversary have been in place for at least a year – long before Trump had secured a second term. But the parade feature was added in recent months, ballooning the budget by tens of millions for the already large-scale event and leaving planners for both the city and military scrambling to prepare.

There are many events happening on the National Mall, including the parade. Beginning at 11 a.m. ET, the Army will host a public festival with military demonstrations and live music, before the parade begins at 6:30 p.m.

A military demonstration in France for Bastille Day made Trump ask for a parade. Officials were able to keep the idea out of the news, due to the questionable nature of the peacetime demonstration.

Since the parade was announced, there has been sharp criticism, particularly from Democratic lawmakers who call the showcase a vanity project and a misuse of funds.

“To use the military in this manner when Donald Trump is slashing veterans’ benefits to aggrandize himself, to communicate to the country his control over the military, is just another shameful act of this administration,” said Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California.

Matthew Frakes, a historian of American military history and assistant professor at Ohio State University, stated that America has a history of smaller military parades, like local Independence Day or Veterans Day celebrations. He said the key with this parade will be to see how much of it focuses on history versus a show of America’s military prowess.

The weekend festivities have a price tag of between $25 million and 45 million, according to an Army spokeswoman. There could be damage to the city’s streets from tanks rolling on them.

Police closed down the main road in Shaw, a neighborhood in the city, after trucks carrying military equipment drove through. He thinks the whole scene was over in about 30 minutes.

The Army celebrates its 250th year, Trump celebrates his 79th: The Case for a No Kings No-Go Theorem

“It’s surreal. It’s a little depressing,” he said. People tend to forget that people actually live here and it’s not a playground.

Significant street closures have been in effect around the city since Thursday, and Reagan National Airport has said it will close for several hours, potentially disrupting flights on Saturday to accommodate the military flyover safely.

The city has also been bracing for potential damage to its streets by installing steel plates along the parade route. D.C. Mayor Mariel Bowser has expressed concern that heavy machinery and tanks could rip up roads and require millions of dollars to repair.

In D.C., the last major military parade was in 1991 to commemorate the deaths of soldiers in the Gulf War. Joshua Zeitz, historian and contributing editor for Politico magazine, says that even that move was seen as controversial.

“He’s really reinventing the presidency as something that doesn’t resemble what it has traditionally in American history, and the military parade is part of that,” Zeitz says.

Frakes points out that military parades are not meant to commemorate but to intimidate and that they have been done recently in China or North Korea.

The statement on No Kings’ website said that the President wants tanks in the street and a made-for-TV display of dominance for his birthday on June 14. “A spectacle meant to look like strength. But real power isn’t staged in Washington. It rises up everywhere else.”

In order to pull attention away from the military grandeur, No Kings will host their largest demonstration of the year in Philadelphia, which is known as the birthplace of America.

The group said that instead of allowing this birthday parade to be the center of gravity, they will make action across the nation to reject strongman politics and corruption.

The National Parks Service had approved a protest permit for only one demonstration related to the parade, and other unsanctioned protests could pop up.

Source: Tanks and flyovers: Army celebrates its 250th year, Trump celebrates his 79th

Protest against ICE immigration raids: Why would we see the protests in Los Angeles? When will we see it? How will the Mexican government respond to protests?

Protests against ICE immigration raids prompted Trump to deploy the military to Los Angeles. He has vowed to take action against demonstrators at Saturday’s events.

He said that the people that wanted to protest would be met with a lot of force. “I have not heard about a protest, but I am pretty sure that they will be met with very heavy force.”