The National Guard will answer the call to provide support for potential unrest in the nation’s capital ahead of the verdict in the court trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is accused of killing George Floyd last summer.
The D.C. National Guard announced Monday evening the activation of roughly 250 personnel to provide support to local law enforcement in response to potential protests.
“This is our home, and we are dedicated to the safety and security of our fellow citizens of the District and their right to safely and peacefully protest,” the D.C. National Guard said.
Christopher Rodriguez, director of the Washington, D.C., government’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, issued a letter on April 8 requesting the backup.
Rodriquez asked for six crowd management teams, vehicles to block 30 traffic posts, and an unarmed “quick response force” of at least 300 guard members, according to a copy of the April 8 letter obtained by the the Hill.
“The trial is expected to last three to four weeks and there is the potential for First Amendment demonstrations to occur in the District of Columbia in response to the verdict,” Rodriguez penned in the letter. “These demonstrations are congruent with the demonstrations that occurred during 2020, where the District saw a large influx of participants and general disorder and criminal activity.”
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National protests were ignited after Floyd, a black man, died in Minneapolis police custody in May. Numerous protests occurred throughout Washington, D.C. last year, as was the case in cities across the country, and many activists criticized the presence of police and National Guard members who patrolled the nation’s capital during periods of heightened unrest and rioting.
“At the request of Dr. Rodriguez … the District of Columbia National Guard is in a support role to the Metropolitan Police Department and we are prepared to help provide a safe environment for our fellow citizens to exercise their first amendment right,” said Brig. Gen. Aaron Dean II, adjutant general of the D.C. National Guard.
As Chauvin’s trial is approaching a close, some protests have emerged again in Minnesota over the death of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old black man who was shot and killed at a traffic stop in nearby Brooklyn Center earlier this month.
A jury is expected to reach a verdict over Chauvin’s trial in the coming days. Chauvin has pleaded not guilty to charges of third-degree murder, second-degree murder, and manslaughter.
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Judge Peter Cahill, who is overseeing the trial, said Monday afternoon that Rep. Maxine Waters’s calls over the weekend for protesters to get more confrontational may have given Chauvin’s defense team “something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned.”
