On June 2, I posted on another thread a comment about how military personnel are compelled by duty and by their sworn oath to support and defend the Constitution, and about how our elected leadership is actively undermining the Constitution and its freedoms.
On June 4, it was reported that on June 3, General Mattis expressed a similar stance:
"I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation."
"When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside."
"We must reject any thinking of our cities as a “battlespace” that our uniformed military is called upon to “dominate.” At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them."
Did everybody get that last part?
"Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them."
Read: Government authorities and government employee are not above the law, and they must not violate the Constitution. Power rests in the hands of the citizens. This is government of the people, by the people, for the people. Full Stop.