Can you imagine the cries of police state, racism, incipient fascism and fill-in-your-favorite-epithet if a conservative pundit—let alone a Republican president—proposed the massive insertion of US military forces into American inner cities for law enforcement purposes?
But that's precisely what Ed Schultz proposed on his MSNBC show this evening.
Ed is apparently unaware that the use of the military for such law-enforcement purposes would raise serious issues under the Posse Comitatus Act. But beyond that, it would utterly distort the mission of our military, and provoke valid civil-liberty concerns. Schultz should try bouncing his brainstorm off the Joint Chiefs and see what kind of reception it receives.
But hey, Ed announced on this evening's show that he will be part of a Big Labor march on Washington in DC in October. Let that be a Dem pre-election theme: troops into Chicago! Here's Ed at his detached-from-reality best . . .
ED SCHULTZ: I woke up in Chicago, on my way to the Midwest, to a couple of truly disturbing headlines. In Chicago, in the Tribune, front page of the Tribune, here it is [holds up paper]: 4 Killed in Southwest Side Garage Shooting. And the Sun-Times: Put the Guns Down. This is what a gang leader says to his folks.
More Americans were killed in Chicago last month than were killed in Iraq all year. Mr. President, I got a great idea as to where you can send those troops that you just brought home from Iraq. How about Chicago, Illinois and a bunch of other big cities in this country? It's time we look out for our own backyard.
