Pa. is braced for Trump to send National Guard to Philadelphia, Gov. Shapiro says
"Our teams are prepared for whatever the White House may try and send our way," the governor said Tuesday at Dobbins High in North Philadelphia.
Pennsylvania is braced for President Donald Trump’s administration to possibly send National Guard troops to Philadelphia, Gov. Josh Shapiro said Tuesday.
The Trump administration has federalized troops and sent them to cities including Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. And he has threatened to deploy the National Guard to Chicago, Baltimore, and New York.
Shapiro, speaking at an education event at Dobbins High in North Philadelphia Tuesday, said his administration “has been preparing for such a thing to happen in Philadelphia.”
Trump has said the National Guard is needed to combat what he has described as rampant crime, mostly in cities and states controlled by Democrats.
Last month, the president deployed National Guard troops to work alongside police to fight crime in Washington, D.C. And earlier this summer, he sent 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles in response to protests that erupted over immigration enforcement.
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration violated federal law by sending troops to Los Angeles. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer said the move violated a federal prohibition on military enforcement of civilian laws.
Shapiro, who has sued the Trump administration over several issues, called the deployment of federal troops to American cities “wrongheaded” and noted a decrease in violent crime, both in Pennsylvania and in Philadelphia.
“As governor, we’ve invested millions of dollars in not only policing, but in community organizations that have helped bring down violent crime by 42%,” Shapiro said. “Now is not a time to disrupt that with distrust the way the president is doing in other communities. Now is the time to continue making the progress we’re making here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
Still, Shapiro underscored, “our teams are prepared for whatever the White House may try and send our way.”