Deploying the National Guard to perform law enforcement functions in Louisiana is easier than you think. It’s just whether the benefits gained aren’t derailed by the politics and policy involved.
Republican Pres. Donald Trump ordered Guard deployment in Washington, DC to enforce the law. It has been an unqualified success, with significant drops in crime commission basically across the board. As a result, Trump has talked of deployment elsewhere, including Louisiana.
However, that’s a different situation. DC has a special constitutional status, run by the federal government, while states have limited sovereignty including in the area of law enforcement. Essentially, a state has to invite the Guard to mobilize or else it can do little in the way of law enforcement, essentially left with protecting federal property.
Yet that shouldn’t be a problem with Louisiana. GOP Gov. Jeff Landry is sympathetic to Trump’s tough-on-crime agenda and when Trump suggested Louisiana could receive this assistance, he enthusiastically signed on.
And not only is it easy to do so, it also would be free to the state. Title 32 of the U.S. Code, Section 502 gives a governor the right to ask for a federalized National Guard deployment with the federal government paying for it, but under state command. That latter consideration further means that the Posse Comitatus Act, which severely restricts the use of troops for law enforcement, doesn’t apply.
Plus, it’s something Landry already is doing, with the State Police’s Troop NOLA in and around New Orleans’ Vieux Carré and other neighborhoods, which also has produced a drop in violent crime that has led to a desire to expand operations. Just to set it up initially cost $1.75 million directly and another at least $9.2 million on a continuing annual basis. Professional law enforcement should perform better than military troops who can perform only a limited range of crime prevention tasks, but potentially troops could be utilized along with troopers as a means of expansion without additional state expense.
Finally, this strategy counters the lackadaisical policies of Democrat Sheriff Susan Hutson and slovenly approach of Democrat District Attorney Jason Williams, plus ineffective city policy affecting policing by its all-Democrat City Council and Democrat Mayor LaToya Cantrell. This not only would make the city safer but also would illustrate the costs of this lab exercise of leftist policy concerning crime and punishment, as opposed to Landry’s worldview.
But beyond Guard deployment to New Orleans, it gets a lot murkier. In Louisiana, according to the most recent violent crime statistics across the state, five of its major cities rank in the top ten most dangerous (and above state and well above national levels), with New Orleans fifth. The highest of the bunch, Monroe (second), has a rate almost 55 percent higher, with Alexandria (third) not far behind at about 50 percent higher.
Monroe might be a tricky political situation for Landry. Its Democrat-majority City Council on big issue more often than not has battled with independent Mayor Friday Ellis; in fact, one such dispute between then over appointing a fire chief has culminated with a state law giving Landry the power to pick one, which he is on the verge of doing. Sending in troops, while delivering a message to the Council Democrats, might also undercut Ellis and his efforts to address crime.
Alexandria might be a more tractable environment for deployment, with the last white liberal populist mayor left in the state’s large cities Democrat Jacques Roy back in charge and a pliant Democrat-run City Council. Still, in both cases these are smaller jurisdictions that may not digest easily an influx of federal troops.
Ranking ninth is Baton Rouge, and as state capital has echoes of the Washington deployment and would send a message about Landry’s seriousness in combatting crime. But deployment here might undercut the new GOP Mayor-President Sid Richardson, who has only had a few months in office with little time to pursue his crime reduction agenda.
Bossier City is tenth – just ahead of Shreveport, even though a selling point has been it’s supposedly much safer than Shreveport. However, its city government is Republican-dominated and a majority of newcomers after having replaced four long-term councilors in July, so they also should be given a chance to implement an agenda, such as seeing the effects of virtual full-staffing of the police department for the first time in years, before any intervention.
Even deploying to Shreveport might need a pause. Like with New Orleans and Baton Rouge, it’s large enough to grab attention if a deployment where to happen there, but its GOP Mayor Tom Arceneaux has battled a City Council Democrat supermajority and past decisions placing monetary constraints on what he can do (although he hasn’t helped his cause with his committing an unforced error on the issue of police stations) to beef up a department about 150 officers short.
Arceneaux sounds lukewarm about Guard deployment in Shreveport while area elected Democrats predictably oppose, not the least because it would illuminate failure of their ethos on the issue of crime. Shreveport could use the help but it might hobble Arceneaux’s policy discretion in the buildup to a reelection campaign next year in a Democrat-majority electorate, especially as violent crime has been coming down faster in the city than in the state (although the overall secular declines in most places in the country have more to do with demographics than policy).
Landry has a lot to think through in accepting deployment, but it seems to some degree he will take up Trump’s offer.
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