Martial Law

It may not have been officially declared, but when President Lyndon Johnson had to send the U.S. Army into Detroit (below) to restore order after the 1967 riot broke out and the Detroit police and the Michigan state militia could not contain it, the Johnson administration's actions were tantamount to martial law.

There's nothing going on in the U.S. today that's as fierce as what happened in Detroit in the summer of 1967, or even any disturbances as chaotic as the George Floyd protests of 2020, but with protests against his rule becoming more frequent by the day, Donald Trump could be ready to declare martial law in These States and use the immigration issue as an excuse.  On the day he came back into office, Trump demanded that the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security do something about the southern border with Mexico and signed an executive order requiring a report on the situation ninety days from them.  That's next Sunday, April 20, a week from today.  Trump might decide, based on the report, which will likely tell him what he wants to hear, that the country must be placed under martial law immediately to re-establish order.  That means that any protests against him - the next major day of protest is the day before, April 19, the 2500th anniversary of Lexington and Concord - will be broken up and the protesters arrested.  And likely held without bail, if not disappeared.

Many conspiracy theorists believe that Trump has been wanting to declare martial law on April 20 all along, the executive order a fig leaf for the opportunity to do that.  Trump and Elon Musk specifically chose April 20 for the declaration, we are told, because of a triple entendre:

• April 20 is written as "4/20," a code for marijuana, which Musk smokes regularly.
• April 20 is the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth.
• April 20, this year anyway, is Easter Sunday, symbolizing the rise of Christian nationalism.

There's no hard evidence that any of this is true.  But a lot of people aren't taking chances.  They're hunkering down and preparing for the worst.

Martial law would not only mean the suspension of civil liberties, it would likely mean strict control of our everyday lives.  Maybe there would be curfews - lights out at ten o'clock, even for Manhattan.  It would mean sending the military to numerous cities,  made that much easier by the Interstate Highway System, built for defense uses as well as for civilians.  Also, alas, it might mean the end of free travel within the country and a ban on foreign travel, as I've mentioned in this space before.  Plus other nasty things I haven't even thought of yet.  

I don't know if Trump will try anything a week from today.  But, on this Palm Sunday, it appears that something is happening, something we're not quite prepared for.