With tensions rising amid protests in Los Angeles, some experts say bringing in National Guard troops could make the situation worse.
7News law enforcement expert Todd McGhee says local and regional law enforcement agencies already know how to communicate with each other and that the National Guard would best be served taking its cues from California officials to keep the response coordinated.
In such a heightened situation, McGhee says that a lack of communication between agencies can create a dangerous situation.
“Typically, when you have outside resources into a municipality, that is a coordinated response from the level of the governor’s office. It appears that White House had deployed these troops as an unwelcomed resource. This could be problematic on the ground, because you don’t have proper coordination. Anytime you have an incident like this, there’s always Incident Command to allow the responding agencies to coordinate,” McGhee said.
“Whenever you have any type of conflicting objective, that’s an opportunity for a disaster. So, hopefully cooler heads will prevail, allow Governor [Gavin] Newsom to make those decisions moving forward, and allow different agencies at municipal, state, and county level to be able to coordinate and work together and to be able to bring some type of quell to the rioting that’s happening,” he continued.
McGhee says people have a right to assemble, as long as it is done safely.
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