Bob McNamara, Upham

Ever notice how things become normal incrementally. Paying for checked baggage was unheard of until it became normal. Wearing seat belts was unheard of when I was young but is now normal. These things happened in small increments over time until we just accepted them as normal. I wonder if we are now seeing another thing become normal.

The US is a country where police, not the military, have always enforced the law. When I see the military patrolling city streets I think of third world countries. Maybe communist countries or socialist countries but not free countries. To see the military on streets of the US meant there was a significant lasting event such as the Vietnam War protests. Or augmenting law enforcement during a significant single event such as the Olympics. However, over the last few months, we have seen the military deployed to the streets of Los Angeles and Washington. Today we are told Chicago might be next. Why?

Are law enforcement agencies unable to handle crime in their cities? Is crime more rampant now than at other times in our history? Are protesters regularly shutting down cities for long periods? I would submit none of those are true and if they are maybe we need to change who we have running our city police departments. Even if true it would be a city or state issue not a federal issue.

Maybe it’s possible that someone wants to incrementally make seeing the military patrolling our streets normal. Would that concern you? Would it concern you if there was a movement afoot at the federal level to incrementally make it normal for us to see the military, controlled by the federal government, patrolling your streets? Is it possible someone wants it to be normalized now so that in two or three years it is normal to see the military on our streets to control the population?

I’m not sure if that’s happening, and without big cities in ND, it may not be an issue here. But as an American, would it concern you to see it become normal for military troops, controlled by the federal government, patrolling our streets. It concerns me. If it didn’t concern me I should just move to one of those communist or socialist countries where the military already patrols the streets. It should also be concerning to you. Don’t let that become normal.