WASHINGTON (AP) – The mayor of Washington, DC urged calm Monday as some 340 National Guard troops were activated as the city prepared for potentially violent protests surrounding Congressional vote expected to win the elected President Joe Biden.
On New Year’s Eve, Mayor Muriel Bowser filed a request to have Guard members out on the streets from January 5-7 to assist with the protests, a U.S. defense official said. The official said DC National Guard members will be used for traffic control and other assistance, but they will not be armed or wear body armor. Congress is meeting this week to certify the results of the electoral college, and President Donald Trump has refused to admit while raising support for protests.
At a news conference on Monday, Bowser asked people to stay away from downtown DC and avoid confrontation with anyone “looking to get into a fight.” However, she warned, “we will not allow people to incite violence, intimidate our residents or cause destruction in our city.”
There will be about 115 guards in the city at the same time, the defense official said, providing details on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The official said Guard members will be used to set up traffic checkpoints in the city and to assist district police officers at all metro stops in the city. Acting Police Chief Robert Contee said Guard forces will also be used to manage a number of crowds.
“Some of our intelligence agencies are certainly suggesting that there will be more crowds,” Contee said, adding, “There are people planning to come to our city armed.”
Since DC has no governor, the designated commander of the city’s National Guard is Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. All DC requests for Guard deployments must be approved by him.
The defense official said there will be no active military forces in the city and the US military will not provide aircraft or intelligence. The DC Guard will provide specialized teams that will be prepared to respond to any chemical or biological incident. But the official said there will be no DC Guard members on the National Mall or the Capitol.