Trump Deployed the National Guard to LA. This Is Always How It Starts.

Let's look at how federal troops have been used against American protesters—from Kent State to Standing Rock.

The images coming out of Los Angeles are chilling. National Guard troops rolling through American streets. Military vehicles are positioned at intersections. Soldiers with rifles stood where protesters once gathered. Police horses are trampling people already beaten and laid out on the ground.

National Guard deployment in Los Angeles.

Trump says it's about "restoring order." He always does.

But I've studied this playbook before. I know how this story ends.

Let’s look at history …

Following the assassination of MLK, National Guard troops were used to monitor and later dismantle the Poor People’s Campaign encampment on the National Mall in DC, which had been built to protest economic injustice and poverty. Troops cleared out the protestors in the name of "public order," even though the movement had been peaceful.

Federal troops at Little Rock Central High School during integration, 1957

In 1970 at Kent State, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed college students protesting the Vietnam War, killing four and wounding nine. The government called it "necessary force to restore order."

In 1992, after the Rodney King verdict, the National Guard occupied LA for weeks. Instead of addressing police brutality, they militarized entire neighborhoods already suffering from systemic oppression.

In 2016 at Standing Rock, federal forces used water cannons in freezing temperatures against Indigenous water protectors. They said it was about enforcing "pipeline security."

After the murder of George Floyd, National Guard troops were deployed to dozens of cities. In Minneapolis, LA, DC, and elsewhere, they occupied public spaces, enforced curfews, and supported police crackdowns on overwhelmingly peaceful protests calling for racial justice.

The through-line is that the Guard is repeatedly called in not to protect people, but to preserve systems of power against movements demanding justice. The story always ends the same way: militarization, suppression, and the narrative of "order" over rights.

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The Stories They're Trying to Bury

Right now, I'm working on a deep dive series about government force against protesters throughout American history: the Little Rock Nine, the Kent State massacre, the Bonus Army, and other stories showing this pattern in American history.

But platforms like Instagram and TikTok are already limiting my reach when I cover topics like this. My videos get mysteriously removed or shadowbanned, and dissenting comments disappear.

This newsletter is the only place I can tell these stories without censorship.

But here's my problem: less than 3% of my 25,000 followers are paid subscribers. That makes it nearly impossible to do the research these stories deserve.

What We Could Build Together:

🔍 At 5% paid subscribers: I could travel to LA and other cities to document what's really happening on the ground, beyond what mainstream media shows you.

📚 At 10% paid subscribers: I could create a comprehensive database of government force against protesters, a resource teachers and activists desperately need but can't find anywhere else.

🌍 At 20% paid subscribers: We could build a network of independent journalists covering these stories in real-time, creating the alternative media infrastructure we need to counter state propaganda.

All for the price of one coffee per month.

The time to act is now, before it's too late.

These stories matter because they reveal the patterns. They show us that what feels unprecedented is actually deeply precedented. And they give us tools to resist.

But I can't tell these stories if this newsletter can't survive.

Will you help me fight back against the erasure of our resistance history?

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We can't let them normalize authoritarianism. Not now. Not ever.