Revealed: Pentagon orders states' national guards to form 'quick reaction forces' for 'crowd control'

[tblue37]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/29/pentagon-memo-quick-reaction-forces?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Revealed: Pentagon orders states’ national guards to form ‘quick reaction forces’ for ‘crowd control’
Pentagon memo details plan to train over 20,000 national guard members across the US to carry out Trump’s order on subduing civil unrest

A top US military official has ordered the national guards of all 50 US states, the District of Columbia and US territories to form “quick reaction forces” trained in “riot control”, including use of batons, body shields, Tasers and pepper spray, according to an internal Pentagon directive reviewed by the Guardian.

Snip

Janessa Goldbeck, a former US Marine Corps captain and chief executive of the Vet Voice Foundation, a non-profit advocacy group, said the order represented “an attempt by the president to normalize a national, militarized police force”.

She predicted that force would be used to send troops to states led by Democratic governors without their permission and could be used to suppress turnout and disrupt the fair operation of elections.

In a worst-case scenario, she said, “the president could declare a state of emergency and say that elections are rigged and use allegations of voter fraud to seize the ballots of secure voting centers”.

Snip

More: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/29/pentagon-memo-quick-reaction-forces?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[SamuelTheThird]

1. Not worst case scenario

That's the likeliest scenario- assuming we even have elections

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. The frogs and giraffes are getting out of control. . . . . . nt

[tblue37]

3. At the end of the article we are reminded that just such a National Guard force mobilized for

crowd control killed protesting students at Kent State:

Military experts said the Trump administration’s moves hearken back to an earlier era when national guard troops were frequently deployed to quell protests and disturbances, such as the 1970 Kent State shooting in which four unarmed college students were killed by the Ohio national guard.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

4. scary

[sakabatou]

5. I want to see every commander refuse such orders

"We will not break the Posse Comitatus Act."

[littlemissmartypants]

6. Then how did Kent State happen? Please explain. TY 🤔❤️

[sakabatou]

7. I don't friggin' know

I wasn't even born yet!

[littlemissmartypants]

8. Hahaha! But the Posse Comitatus Act was ...

And it didn't work that time. Which suggests that it might not work again. I don't know either. It appears that the law is getting trampled over on a regular basis.