Gov: No National Guard to quell protests
Lamont rejects Trump’s remarks that U.S. authorities ‘dominate’ demonstrators
After a scorching video conference from Washington on Monday, highlighted by President Donald Trump chastising some governors for not clamping down harder on civil unrest, Gov. Ned Lamont said he won’t put National Guard troops onto Connecticut streets to oppose people peacefully exercising their constitutional rights to assemble and speak.
Lamont, who earlier in the day said he’s “totally at one” with demonstrators who stood up against police violence over the weekend — and who wore an “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirt in a Sunday message on social media — rejected Trump’s divisive remarks that urged that governors either “dominate” protesters
or are “jerks.”
During an early evening appearance in the White House Rose Garden, Trump doubled-down, announcing that he feels the law enforcement presence
established by mayors and governors is insufficient. “I will deploy the United States military and solve the problem for them,” he said. “I am mobilizing all available federal resources, civilian and military to stop the rioting and looting.”
Joining Lamont in his daily news briefing was U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5, who said the recent death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police was more than just a homicide involving a black man and a white cop.
“We witnessed an execution,” said Hayes, whose husband is a black Waterbury police officer who has recovered from a COVID-19 infection and was on the job over the weekend. The congresswoman warned that law enforcement has to do a better job of recruiting a more-diverse workforce, especially in cities where police are not seen as friends of the under-served communities.
“We need to have some honest conversations,” Hayes said, stressing that younger minority residents don’t recall the historic civil rights movement of the 1960s.
During a briefing with Lamont in the State Capitol, James Rovella, commissioner of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, said he has discussed various scenarios with Connecticut
National Guard officials, but no solid plans have been developed.
Rovella, commenting on weekend protests that led to scattered arrests and the closure of interstate highways in New Haven, Bridgeport and Waterbury, warned that it is extremely dangerous for pedestrians to enter roadways where traffic typically travels at 75 miles per hour.
“Our protests have been generally peaceful,” said Rovella. “There have been some altercations at the front doors of police departments, or there have been some arrests in different areas. We’re gauging that as we go.”
Rovella said that he has spoken with Connecticut National Guard officials to hypothesize plans if incidents escalate in intensity similar to Minneapolis and other cities where violence has occurred. “We’ve had those conversations and we’re prepared for them, but right now neither one of us see the benefit of that, but they’re on our horizon, if needed,” said Rovella, who sat near Lamont during the hour-long, televised briefing.
Asked if Trump’s statements to the nation’s governors were election-year campaign rhetoric, Lamont, 66 recalled being 14-yearsold during the 1968 election, which occurred during national unrest over the Vietnam War and the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, a Democratic
presidential candidate. That year, Republican Richard M. Nixon was elected on a “law and order” platform similar to what Trump seems to be trying to carve out of the cratering national economy and over 100,000 dead in the pandemic.
“It does play into the body politic,” Lamont said of Trump’s aggressive position. “I’m old enough to remember those days. But I do think, broadly speaking, militarizing this situation is not the way to go.”
During a two-minutelong diatribe in what was supposed to be a teleconference with governors focused on the coronavirus pandemic, Trump warned the nation’s governors that they must “dominate” protesters. Trump blamed “the radical left” for the protests, which were essentially condoned by weak Democratic governors, he said.
“You have to dominate,” Trump said in a section of the meeting posted on Vice News. “If you don’t dominate you’re wasting your time and they’re going to run all over you and make you look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate and you have to arrest people.”
Lamont said Trump’s message “is the opposite of what we’re trying to do here in Connecticut as we reach out to our community and work through the meaning of George Floyd’s life and sudden death together and what that means.”
During an early evening appearance in the White House Rose Garden, Trump doubled-down, announcing that he feels the law enforcement presence established by mayors and governors is insufficient. “I will deploy the United States military and solve the problem for them,” he said. “I am mobilizing all available federal resources, civilian and military to stop the rioting and looting.”
Earlier in the day, Lamont was grateful that most protests in Connecticut were peaceful.
“I’m totally at one with the people who are standing up and saying how can this continue,” Lamont said during a Monday morning interview on WNPR radio in Hartford. “We’ve had more of these incidents over the last 40 years, 50 years, 100 years in this country and the progress is so slow. I also thanks the protesters, the overwhelming majority of whom were peaceful, and I think that makes a muchmore-positive statement about how we should all be doing better. But I take that message to heart.”
Lamont said he has made a point of fostering diversity in his administration and has also focused on recruiting teachers of color, particularly men, so pupils can look up to them as role models. Lamont said that he has also reached out to the General Assembly’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus for recommendations on recruiting judges, educators, and law enforcement personnel.