Defense Secretary Mark Esper said today (Wednesday, June 3) that he does not support using the military to crack down on the protests triggered by the death of George Floyd.
Esper said: "I say this not only as Secretary of Defense but also as a former soldier and a former member of the National Guard.
"The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire situations. We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act."
You can see Esper's comments from earlier today below:Esper also called the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers "a horrible crime" and called for the cops involved to "be held accountable for his murder".
"With great sympathy, I want to extend the deepest of condolences to the family and friends of George Floyd, for me and the department," Esper said during a Pentagon briefing. "Racism is real in America, and we must all do our very best to recognize it, to confront it, and to eradicate it."
On Monday, President Trump raised the specter of invoking the 1807 law in a Rose Garden address.
You can see Trump's address below:Speaking at the same time as federal officers cleared peaceful protesters from outside the White House, Trump threatened military intervention as a means of stamping out the continuing unrest across the country.
"If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them," Trump said.
On Tuesday, Esper spoke with NBC News, in which he said he was given no notice before President Donald Trump led him to St. John's Episcopal Church for a widely criticized photo opportunity.
"I thought I was going to do two things: to see some damage and to talk to the troops," Esper said Tuesday night in an exclusive interview with NBC News.
Esper added that he believed they were going to observe the vandalized bathroom in Lafayette Square - which is near the church. He added:
"I didn't know where I was going. I wanted to see how much damage actually happened."
Esper's disagreement with Trump comes as mass demonstrations have erupted across the US and other major cities around the globe.
These protests - some peaceful, some violent - are calling out the systemic injustices carried out against black people, not least seen by the recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor.
They are also demanding an end to police brutality and the racism that is so deeply entrenched in America and the western world.
The message is simple: Black lives matter.
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