Darrell Castle talks about a new Department of Defense directive 5240.01 which allows the US military to use lethal force against American citizens when assisting police authorities in domestic disturbances.

Transcription/Notes

MILITARY USE OF LETHAL FORCE IN AMERICA

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle report. This is Friday the 18th day of October in the year of our Lord 2024. I will be talking about a new Department of Defense directive 5240.01 which allows the US military to use lethal force against American citizens when assisting police authorities in domestic disturbances. This Directive changes the relationship between the American people and their military and coming this close to the election might indicate civil disturbances, otherwise known as a coup, are expected in case of a Trump win.

Yes, it seems that politicians on the Democrat side of the political spectrum, apparently unable to articulate any position on any issue that might be of vital importance to the electorate or the American people in general, are unleashing their inner demons to fuel the fantasies of a few prominent people on the left. The DOD directive allowing the use of lethal force by the US military inside the US is particularly frightening to me for many reasons.

It seems to be a clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act and the intent of that act which prohibits use of US military in a law enforcement capacity. Posse Comitatus originally passed in 1878, limited the power of the federal government in a law enforcement capacity. It was originally intended to get the military out of law enforcement in the south post-civil war. It has been expanded and reinforced many times, the last being the Defense Authorization Act in 2022. The act has some grey areas for politicians to wriggle through such as the fact that it doesn’t apply to the various state guards or even to the Coast Guard which has law enforcement responsibility offshore.

Generally speaking, I am on alert when the federal government starts to push into the grey areas like this latest directive does. In my opening paragraph I mentioned that it changes the historic relationship between the American people and their military and it weakens to the point of non-existence the concept of Posse Comitatus. Why now just before a very hotly contested election and why the specific permission for lethal force. I have a copy of the directive on my desk and it is about 22 pages of the usual bureaucratic gobbledygook but it does lay out some of the circumstances under which the military could be called on to use its lethal force against the American people. This specific authorization pushes the boundaries between domestic law enforcement and the military and should set off alarms that soon we may see armed soldiers on our streets as a form of intimidation and suppression of civil rights.

 Am I overreacting to this directive, perhaps, but we will see, and I hope that seeing comes before it is too late. Opposition to Covid measures set up by the CDC but enforced locally could come under this directive potentially. People exercising their First Amendment rights would seem to me to be most at risk of this “lethal force.” Could a federal mandate to get vaccinated, wear a mask, or stay in your home be enforced by the US military or is that just too farfetched to believe. I think it could happen and I am not the only one. Why have this directive if there is absolutely no reason to use it.

Free speech could be chilled under the guise of protecting national security. Covid protesters have already been defined as domestic terrorists by some agencies so expanding that would be the natural thing to do. I am just fearful that this directive along with several of the things I have talked about recently points toward us being herded into a box canyon with no escape and only one point of view can ever be expressed. Farfetched, maybe, but I don’t think so.