National Guard activated in OKC, Tulsa
More t han 200 members of t he Oklahoma National Guard in Oklahoma City and Tulsa have been activated to help respond, if necessary, to local protests against police violence.
The guard teams, activated by Gov. Kevin Stitt and the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, are essentially on standby, said Lt. Col. Geoff Legler, a spokesman for the Oklahoma National Guard.
“No one has been sent out to do anything yet,” he said. “They've just been told to report and get ready in case they're needed.”
A quick- reaction team of more than 100 members in Oklahoma City was activated Sunday. A similar team in Tulsa was activated Monday.
If deployed, the National Guard will assist the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Legler said.
“Generally, what we do in these kinds of situations is we take care of checkpoints and flow of traffic and things like that so the actual law enforcement folks are free to do other things,” he said. If deployed, guardsmen and women will not be carrying weapons, he said.
Stitt, on Monday, reiterated his support for Oklahomans who choose to demonstrate peacefully, but said he cannot condone those who turn to violence or destruction of property.
“At the request of local communities, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and the National Guard have been authorized to provide support as needed,” Stitt said. “These hard working Oklahomans are our friends and neighbors who step up in times of need, including to protect peaceful demonstrators. Violence and damage to property goes against the Oklahoma Standard and is a distraction designed to keep us from uniting together to change for the better.”
The National Guard units that have been activated are different from those that have been assisting with the state's response to the coronavirus pandemic by deep-cleaning nursing homes, working as contact tracers and aiding local food pantries.
Local protests on Saturday and Sunday were part of the occasionally violent ripple effects playing out across the nation after the death of George Floyd, a black man who recently died during an arrest in Minneapolis.
The Oklahoma City protests, which were largely peaceful, have resulted in dozens of arrests as some people damaged local businesses and clashed with law enforcement.