By Lai Xiangyu

George Floyd, an African American, died on May 25, 2020 after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes. The death of George Floyd has triggered a rare upsurge of massive protests across the US. As the police were unable to control the situation, National Guard troops in various states and Washington DC have been activated to help perform a task too familiar for the Americans - suppressing civil protests with force.

As an important reserve force of America’s armed forces, the National Guard belongs to the states themselves and can be quickly deployed directly by the state government, to cope with various situations at different places. Meanwhile, as part of the US military, the National Guard boasts a strong combat force with almost identical leading battle equipment as that of the US armed forces, which makes it highly effective in suppressing the civil protests and unrest.

However, the suppression by the National Guard and other troops is like the advent of Death for ordinary Americans. On May 29, the National Guard drove their M1117 armored vehicles into downtown Minneapolis, after which more armored vehicles and fully armed National Guard soldiers appeared in Arizona, Arkansas, California and other cities.

The troops soon showed up American military’s traditional approach of excessively using force against civilians after they entering downtown areas. On May 30, they fired at civilian houses randomly after clearing the way with armored vehicles the minute they entered Minneapolis, hitting multiple residents with the “non-destructive” paintballs and rubber bullets. What’s more astonishing is that many Guard troops deployed in different places were videoed installing mufflers on their rifles.

The new large-scaled excessive use of force by American troops is genuinely confounding. What on earth makes US resort to force against its own people even though it frequently adopted the same iron-fisted approach toward other countries? Why is the US always so militant when dealing with problems? Answers to these questions may be found in history.

In 1932, the Thursday massacre in Washington astonished the world. Many WWI veterans who shed blood on the battlefield to serve their country were confronted with military tanks, tear gas, and gunpoint, either killed or injured while running away from the military’s brutal suppression. The US military dared to use sheer force to oppress and slaughter veterans whose military exploits hadn’t faded yet, so what chances do the civilians stand today?

Even after the Affirmative Action raged across the US in full swing in the 1960s, the US military still resolutely suppressed the anti-racism protests and riots and anti-war movement with force, causing one bloodshed tragedy after another. In 1970, students at the University of Kent waged a righteous campaign against America’s invasion of Cambodia and expansion of the war. Sadly, the gunshots fired by National Guard soldiers turned the protest into a massacre with four dead and nine injured. Before that, the Detroit riot in 1967 left 43 dead and 467 injured just because of a large-scale inspection of bars conducted by the police.

The bloody facts in history are silently complaining about the abuses of the US military and National Guard troops. Why always the US? Why always military actions? Why are civilians always killed and injured?

As the US was falling back into the abyss of turmoil and armed conflicts, president Trump, was rooting for MacArthur and Patton, who brutally oppressed the WWI veterans many years ago. He requested all states to follow the example of forced suppression in Minneapolis, even claiming to mobilize the military to solve problems by citing the Insurrection Act. Again, capitalism and racism, the deep-rooted conflicts in this superpower, have surfaced.

Currently the COVID-19 pandemic is ravaging across the country because of Trump administration’s poor response. While Black people and other ethnic minority groups, who could hardly make ends meet in normal times, could barely keep on in the first half of this year due to the shortage of living necessities and fundamental fairness and justice. The US, the world’s only superpower, hegemon, and capitalist paragon, decides to protect the interests of its magnates without any hesitation during the pandemic. The government did its best to reduce losses by pushing the QE and work and production resumption at the expense of ordinary Americans, turning a blind eye to the huge impacts suffered by the latter. Instead of doing its best to control the spread of the epidemic and help the people get through this difficult time, Washington even ordered the whole country to re-open businesses while the pandemic is still on the rise. The US politicians are in a desperate attempt to make up for worsened economy due to the incompetence of those decision-makers at the White House and the Capitol Hill, as if the American lives mean nothing in their eyes.

Now that the people have finally vented out their anger, once again the US chose to do what it’s good at, confronting people with armored vehicles and bullets, defending capitalism and racism at the cost of more lives, justice, and fairness. Those who harm others will eventually harm themselves. The pains and bullying inflicted upon the Americans at the bottom of the society and the ethnic minorities will evolve into more flaming “sceneries” on American soil.