Trump’s military threat splits area officials
Yuma lawmakers divided along party lines over his comments about handling protesters
In the wake of the president’s statements Monday night regarding protesters and military mobilization, Yuma’s elected representatives in Phoenix and Washington shared their thoughts on the issues.
President Donald Trump said Monday that he would call for military mobilization if local officials don’t take action to quell civic unrest in the wake of the May 25th death of George Floyd.
“My first and highest duty as president is to defend our great country and the American people,” the president said Monday from the White House. “I swore an oath to uphold the laws of our nation, and that is exactly what I will do. All Americans were rightly sickened and revolted by the brutal death of George Floyd. My administration is fully committed that for George and his family justice will be served (and) he will not have died in vain. But we cannot allow the righteous cries of peaceful protesters to be drowned out by an angry mob. The biggest victims of rioting are peace-loving citizens in our poorest communities.”
Trump stated, “If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their resi
dents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.”
Arizona House Democratic Leader Rep. Charlene Fernandez (D-Yuma) issued a statement Monday night, noting the president’s actions were divisive.
“What Donald Trump did today was the act of a want-to-be dictator. Taking the outrageous step of authorizing military force against American civilians is a blatant attempt to tear our country apart and further divide us, and it moves our country further away from addressing the very real issue of racial discrimination and police violence that caused demonstrations in the first place. Declaring war on American citizens does not honor the memory of George Floyd and the countless other African-American and other minority victims of police brutality,” Fernandez said in a press release.
According to Arizona Rep. Tim Dunn (R-Yuma), the issue at hand is no longer about Floyd’s murder, emphasizing that “lashing out is not the American way” and that the rioters shown doing so via televised news coverage “show no compassion for George Floyd.”
“We have private property rights and people of liberty being assaulted by individual folks who are using this as an excuse to cause riots,” Dunn said. “The military action has nothing to do with peaceful protesters. President
Trump is right in trying to stop force with force. Maybe they’ve been cooped up too long with COVID, but they’re lashing out and using this as an excuse to cause violence. I believe that President Trump’s call for force will slow these individuals down. I hope it doesn’t come to that, I hope the sheer thought of people having to be confronted will stop those thugs that are doing this for no reason at all except to create havoc.”
Dunn noted there is a clear distinction between peaceful protesting and civil disobedience, referring to the latter as what requires action.
“Peaceful protesting is perfectly legal and perfectly encouraged — in fact, that’s the American way,” he said. “But throwing rocks (and) causing violence should not be tolerated and we as an American people need to stand up for our rights. We don’t really want to have military presence, but I would rather have military presence to make sure our fellow citizens are safe as opposed to having to make sure those individual people take their Second Amendment rights to protect their own individual businesses and to be confronted with a mob.”
According to Dunn, all of the protests that have taken place in Yuma have been of a peaceful nature and he has full faith in his fellow Yumans that this will continue to be the case. And while he recognizes that the curfew implemented by Gov. Doug Ducey on Sunday interrupts people’s liberties “just because of a small few that are doing bad things,” Dunn said the curfew is simply a tool for officials to enforce in their jurisdiction before things get out of control, hopefully mitigating any need for the president’s proposed military action.
“It does limit your abilities to protest after 8 p.m., which is a taking of our liberty because of a few potential bad actors, so that is very frustrating when you’re doing this,” said Dunn. “We’re not in any way saying that you shouldn’t be able to go protest and make your statements known. I continue to pray for peace and hope that we would have a calming effect, that justice would be served and people’s wishes known, but in a peaceful way.”
At the federal level, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D) cosponsored a resolution condemning “all acts of police brutality, racial profiling, and the use of excessive and militarized force throughout the country” in response to recent protests, noting the outfitting of local law enforcement with military-grade equipment has been on an “unprecedented rise” over the years, as a study found that $4.3 billion in military equipment had been transferred from the U.S. Department of Defense to police departments between 1997 and 2014.
“The protests we’re seeing are borne out of decades of policing practices that have institutionalized excessive force as the norm when confronting black and brown bodies,” Grijalva stated. “For too long, numerous instances of excessive violence have resulted in the deaths of thousands of people of color that are often met with impunity.”
Grijalva believes the time has come to call out violence and brutality, take legislative action to put a stop to “the militarization of police forces” and to hold law enforcement officers accountable for engagement in “unprovoked violence.”
“We cannot begin to heal the scars of racial injustice if a militarized, biased police force continues profiling us and using unnecessary violence towards our communities,” he said. “It’s time to not just condemn police brutality, but pass legislation that stops exacerbating violence towards communities of color.”
Grijalva represents Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes portions of Yuma County.
In a telephone town hall meeting Monday night, Sen. Martha McSally (R) similarly encouraged peaceful protesting, stating that looting and violence have no place in such events.
“The tragic and callous killing of George Floyd was unacceptable and is deeply troubling to me,” she said. “Those responsible must be held to the fullest extent of the law. Our country grieves as one with George Floyd’s family and his loved ones. There’s no place for this kind of abuse of power by law enforcement in our country who are sworn to protect and serve. People have every right to freely assemble, that’s what our country is all about. But I say this with the strongest of convictions: the looting and the violence just has no place in our country and our communities.”