Ah, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Back after the Civil War, Republican Presidents sent the U.S. Army into the South to keep order and protect the rights of the newly-freed slaves from Klan terror. Democrats were having none of it, as that might cost them elections. So to make sure, when they got control of Congress, they passed the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 effectively denying any role for the military domestically. The Jim Crow era quickly followed.
It wasn’t until there were federal judges -- usually Republican appointees -- brave enough to take on segregation, and then a President to back them up -- Eisenhower sending in the 101st Airborne by invoking the Insurrection Act after a total law enforcement collapse in Arkansas in 1957 -- that Jim Crow was defeated.
Something like that has been going in America’s big cities today. Democrat politicians have long been deeply enmeshed with organized crime. In Chicago, for example, through the 1970s, the top men in the Daley Machine, like Pat Marcy, John D’Arco, Sr., and Fred Roti, were also top men in the Outfit. At least in the old days, they didn’t kill that many people and their graft actually did some good. Chicago’s beautiful lakefront skyscrapers only went up because the builders bribed mob connected politicians to waive the zoning laws.
These days nothing good at all is coming from the gangbangers and drug dealers ruining America’s big cities. Left-wing politicians running these places are loath to do anything because, like the mob of old, the criminals run the system. Billions of dollars in drug money funds an army of defense lawyers who in turn help elect their allies to the bench and to political office. Left-wing foundations, like the George Soros network, are always around to back pro-crime prosecutors and anti-police initiatives; or just fund worthless poverty programs. More beneficiaries for the status quo.
Getting good policemen to work in this environment is difficult, and legal vultures are always ready to pounce. Chicago recently figured out the city was in financial distress, just from all the questionable lawsuits won against the police.
But if Pres. Trump wants to send some federal help into Chicago, or anywhere else, for that matter, he can do it, and he doesn’t need to have the dire emergency required in the Insurrection Act, to overcome the Posse Comitatus Act. All he needs is the U.S. Marshal Service, the original federal law enforcement unit. The DoJ can appoint U.S. Marshal special deputies -- typically law enforcement, National Guard, and private security -- pretty much anywhere, anytime, to assist federal law enforcement in things like immigration and drug trafficking.
Thousands of deputies, including National Guard, are appointed every year for big events like inaugurations, but they can be used anywhere. Elon Musk's private security detail was deputized early this year while he led the DOGE team.
This last week, Stephen Breyer’s little brother, a federal judge, misused the Posse Comitatus Act to prohibit Trump’s dispatch of federal troops to California. This is totally wrong as the soldiers were only called up to protect federal property; and the appeals courts will eventually overturn this ruling.
However, if Pres. Trump really wants to go into the blue cities without judicial interference, he should not bother with military and National Guard. That may require use of the Insurrection Act at some point, which has a very high threshold of civil disorder to be invoked. There is also a limited number of soldiers who can realistically be called on for this kind of duty.
Instead, he can just do this: Make up strike forces of only special deputies from paid private security guards, retired police who want to serve again, and active-duty suburban police who have permission to do so from their superiors. (There are plenty of Republican-run little towns, even in Illinois and California).
These strike forces can do routine patrols in high-crime areas (even in Chicago that’s not a big area) and assist ICE and DEA in their major arrest actions. And there is not a single thing kook judges or crooked politicians can do about it.
Pres. Trump’s attack on big city crime feels like a great weight is finally being lifted from the country. People have finally had enough and want the federal government to end all this nonsense, once and for all. Just like Ike did with Jim Crow segregation.
Frank Friday is an attorney in Louisville, KY.
Image: Peter Fitzgerald