Thread by @GeorgeCroner

Sometimes the past really is prologue. Here is a link to an oral history interview given by William Barr in 2001. web1.millercenter.org/poh/transcript….
At pages 34-36, he discusses preparations for the last time the Insurrection Act was invoked following the LA riots after the /1

acquittal of the officers in the Rodney King beating.
Barr says: "Overnight I had prepared this plan to use 2,000 or more federal officers to supplement what was out there, basically to enforce the law out there. A lot of people think that the Department of Justice can just /2

click its fingers and get a lot of resources, but the fact of the matter is it’s very difficult. We had only 150 marshals available as part of their special operations group. We put together an amazing polyglot organization of FBI, SWAT [Special Weapons and Tactics] teams, /3

U.S. marshal SWAT teams, Border Patrol special operations group, a prison special operations group, and things like that. Even the Park Police put in their SWAT team.
We scraped together 2,000 people and told them to stand by at different airports and rally early that morning, /4

because I figured the President might want something done. The President wanted to know what the violence
was about, and I told him that there were a lot of street gangs involved and this was primarily
centered on street gang activity. I told him the names of the gangsthat were/5

involved, that the violence was largely street gang activity, big-time gang, not like street gangs in the 1950s- Crips-type gangs. I explained that the LA police force is a very small police force—it’s highly mobile, but it’s very small. I said, “The National Guardis all /6

screwed up, and they’re having trouble getting the National Guard there. We have two other choices. You can get as many civil guys out there as you can, and I have 2,000 who can move, but I would need air support from—” Powell was sitting there. I said,'I need Colin’s /7

[Powell's] help in getting them out there, but I could get you 2,000 people out there by three or four in the afternoon, assuming the military transports were available.'
I said, 'The only other alternative would be regular Army.' That would require a declaration by the /8

President, basically a breakdown—I’ve forgotten the term at this point, but basically the President has to issue a proclamation telling people to cease and desist and go to their homes. It’s sort of an antiquated statute. And then if they don’t cease and desist, you’re allowed /9

to use regular Army."

* * *
"My role in those things, I felt, was to be more of a law-and-order kind of person, not tolerating this kind of stuff. One of my disappointments is that we were prepared, and set up task forces, and could have brought federal indictments against /10

lot of the people involved, the gangs involved. I went out there, and we had these rooms that looked like war rooms in organized crime cases. There were pictures of the gangs, and who reports to whom, and videotapes showing the individuals involved. We could have cleaned /11

that place up. That was shut down by the Clinton people when they came in.

My idea was, 'Fine, we can bring a federal case against the cops. We’re also bringing a federal case against these people.' Unfortunately, we just brought the federal case against the cops and never /12

pursued the gangsters."

Does any of this sound familiar? All I can say is that this guy really takes the "General" part of his title seriously. /13