Calif. National Guard at the SD County Administration Building. By Dave Rolland on tweeter.
After demands from local elected officials and others, and after a week of peaceful protests, the California National Guard has finally withdrawn from San Diego County.
Two hundred Guard troops were deployed Thursday, June 4, in the county to ostensibly support police officers in La Mesa and sheriff’s deputies across the region. It was a request from Sheriff Bill Gore that brought the Guard here.
Their withdrawal comes a day after San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher requested the National Guard leave the area and two days after the San Diego City Council President, Georgett Gomez, did the same. Both Gomez and Sarah Jacobs are running for Susan Davis’ Congressional seat and both came out against the Guard’s presence.
On twitter, Fletcher said:
“We need to focus on efforts around authentic dialogue, uplifting the voices of the peaceful protestors and driving substantive change to address the problem of systemic racism. These protests are peaceful and the presence of the National Guard only escalates the situation.”
Unfortunately, not all local elected officials have taken a stand. We’re not aware of anything that mayoral candidates Barbara Bry and Todd Gloria have said about the presence of the Guard in their city and County. And in a recent newsletter to her constituents, Councilwoman Jen Campbell was silent about the Guard. As our readers may be aware, the OB Rag was one of the first news outlets to question why they were here.
We said then and we’ll repeat it: it was a dark moment for San Diego when the Guard arrived. Requested by the elected Sheriff, not a mayor or County supervisor, they showed up at night at a time when they not only were not needed, but it was all a waste of tax payers’ money.
But the biggest mistake of calling for the Guard is how their presence feeds into the Donald Trump narrative that rioters and looters have taken over our cities and the Guard is needed to “dominate” the protesters. It is part of the attempt to criminalize the George Floyd protests, that stirs up fear and hysteria among local business-owners and townspeople. That fear forced the OB Farmers Market to cancel and for local shopowners in OB and North Park, for example, to needlessly and wastefully board up their front windows.
Photo: Dave Rolland on tweeter
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