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Did We Fail Our Guardsmen? · Commentary - TJ Meadows

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  Speaker 1: The passage of time and the evidence that comes with
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  Speaker 1: it sometimes forces you to rethink your own position. Back
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  Speaker 1: in August, I wrote a commentary titled Federal DC takeover
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  Speaker 1: for the Best. The argument was simple, Despite some statistical declines, Washington,
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  Speaker 1: DC was still facing a very real violent crime problem.
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  Speaker 1: Under the Home Rule Act, the president has authority to intervene,
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  Speaker 1: and President Trump invoked that authority. I said the move
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  Speaker 1: should be judged on results, whether crime fell without trampling
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  Speaker 1: civil liberties. My heart still says the mission was virtuous.
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  Speaker 1: My head isn't so sure anymore. Thanksgiving night I started
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  Speaker 1: getting texts from sources raising a troubling question, howard guardsmen
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  Speaker 1: deployed in DC authorized to carry their weapons. Since then,
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  Speaker 1: more sources have echoed the same concern. In plain terms,
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  Speaker 1: firearms are carried in different conditions. Condition one means fully
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  Speaker 1: loaded and ready. Condition three means a loaded magazine but
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  Speaker 1: no round in the chamber. Condition four means the weapon
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  Speaker 1: isn't loaded at all. That distinction matters. I asked the
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  Speaker 1: Governor's office whether West Virginia guardsmen, including Sarah Backstrom and
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  Speaker 1: Andrew Wolf, were armed, and if so, how they were
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  Speaker 1: authorized to carry. I was referred to comments by Adjutant
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  Speaker 1: General Jim Sewart, who said the guardsmen were deputized as
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  Speaker 1: US marshals. If that's true, standard protocol for a US
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  Speaker 1: marshal would normally mean a fully loaded weapon, but no
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  Speaker 1: one has confirmed the carry condition. Now DC police are
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  Speaker 1: escorting guardsmen. An internal memo warned troops they were operating
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  Speaker 1: in a heightened threat environment. At a Wall Street Journal
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  Speaker 1: image appears to show a guardsman racking the slide of
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  Speaker 1: his weapon while under attack. The shooter bears responsibility full stop.
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  Speaker 1: But if our guardsmen were sent into danger without the
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  Speaker 1: highest level of readiness, then we failed them. There are
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  Speaker 1: still about two thousand guardsmen in DC. If leaders believe
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  Speaker 1: in this mission, they owe the public and the troops
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  Speaker 1: clear answers, because if you wouldn't walk that duty less
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  Speaker 1: than fully prepared, you shouldn't expect them to either.