President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would deploy the U.S. military to stop racial justice rioting across the country. To do so, Trump would invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, told Boston Public Radio on Tuesday.
"The Insurrection Act is a bizarre thing for him to invoke, and I think the legality of it is going to be tested as we go forward," she said. "Trying to deploy federal troops to suppress political dissent would be unconstitutional, irresponsible and a danger."
This is a watershed moment to decide if we are going to address the underlying inequities in our country and policing, Rose noted.
"We have to turn away from this path that we're on of thinking that we can arrest our way or militarize or weaponize our way out of the ills that plague our society like racism," she said. "No level headed governor is even asking for this aggresive and bellicose armed response to have federalization of National Guard troops."
