“We got troops at Dunbar High School, and they are prepared for any eventuality.”

by Prince Of Petworth January 19, 2017 at 10:10 am 35 Comments

101 N Street, NW

Thanks to Rob for sending from last night.

And if things go south – at least there will be plenty of pretzels:

troops

houseintherear

Wow this just got real for me. Guess I’ve been in denial up to this point!
I Dont Get It

They might want to start with that Trump Mobile guy!
Tom

Mobilizing the NG for the events planned for the next couple of days is standard procedure. There will likely be a lot of people downtown with a lot of competing agenda and not preparing to protect public safety would be irresponsible. That said, the plan to “disruptJ20” is a new (and irresponsible) wrinkle into what has been 43 peaceful exchanges in the Presidency. Peaceful protest issues is hallmark of democracy; disrupting democracy is not.
- FridayGirl
  
  “Peaceful protest issues is hallmark of democracy; disrupting democracy is not.”
  .
  I’m a little confused about how protesting is disrupting democracy anymore than what Trump has done is disrupting democracy. But that’s probably another conversation entirely.
  - LittleBluePenguin
    
    +1000! This whole “oh, it’s so wonderful that we can have a peaceful transfer of power!” means nothing to me except that we’re handing over the keys to country to a petulant dictator with thin skin and small hands, and doing so without a fight. Screw that.
    - skwirl
      
      The whole reason that “peaceful transition of power” is a talking point this time is because Trump himself was coyly threatening to cause trouble if he lost back in October and November. And after winning he’s still speaking in conspiracy theories and dog whistling support to his most violence-prone supporters.
- John
  
  J20 isn’t really new, FYI. They were planning on protesting the inauguration with either outcome.
- E.
  
  OP’s partner here….. I completely get the National Guard’s involvement and this location is much more convenient than the Armory, I just would have liked a heads up from someone (Mayor? Dunbar principal? Temporary No Parking signs actually posted 72 hours out? So many options!) that they would be in the high school.
  - anon
    
    I am not sure the National Guard owes anyone a head’s up when it comes to doing their assigned jobs.
    - Anon
      
      I don’t think the point of contention is with the NG, but with Dunbar/whomever who could’ve notified the neighbors about what’s going on in their neighborhood as a common courtesy.
    - Truxtoner
      
      Yeah, I agree with E here. It was a bit surprising and offputting to see if you live across the street and have no clue what is going on. It seriously reminded me of an apocalyptic zombie movie. There were 100+ guardsmen just on the streets. At 11pm. It was very very loud. And they had flood lights facing homes on N Street.
      
      I quickly realized what it was for, but a heads up wouldn’t have hurt. Maybe they always did this at the old Dunbar High for Inauguration but this is the first for the new building/location.
      
      In any case, the guardsmen were of course very nice and said hello as I walked by with my dog, who was NOT okay with any of what was happening.
      - E.
        
        For what it’s worth, I was here for Obama’s second inauguration and I do not recall National Guard at the old Dunbar. The building was absolutely nothing to show off to out of town folks, though. I also don’t remember exactly where the inauguration fell in the tear down and building process.
  - C
    
    Agreed. I saw them putting up the signs at 7-8 pm Tuesday….for parking restrictions that began on 6 pm on Wednesday. A little notice would have been nice. Some neighbors who failed to move their cars in time were boxed in by military vehicles and equipment.
Anon

Nice – can’t wait for the impending military parades! Old Soviet block parades were quite impressive in their obstinate insistence on over-funding the military at all possible cost to their citizens. Putin is quite the adviser, it seems.
- Zora
  
  Yes. It would be horrible if we started to over-fund the military. Spending obscene amounts of taxpayer money on defense and the military industrial complex would be novel and unprecedented!
  - Anon
    
    You seem to be poorly educated about the last ~50 years of the Soviet Union.
    - navyard
      
      I think you may be responding to sarcasm.
- mcd
  
  Impending Dooooooom! C’mon man.
  - Anon
    
    This wasn’t a comment about the expected presence of the National Guard but about: https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/01/18/trump-proposes-military-parades-in-dc/
    .
    No big deal, right?
Liz in VA

hope we get some russian hookers along the way tomorrow! Vlad would be so proud! maybe they can stand on top of the tanks and shake what their momma gave them.
- Anon
  
  No joke, but now is prime time for hookers in DC, Russian or otherwise.
Wendy Testaburger

It was parking across from the front of the Embassy Suites on 10th Street NW this morning at 9:30 am.
dc_anon

Its not the start of Russian style military parades. In fact, 2009 was a heck of a lot more occupy-dc like than this. A ton of street corners in Shaw had out of town national guard positions and every mailbox south of Florida was removed from the sidewalk. If you look at a map, the Dunbar lot is probably one of the few left w/ easy access out of town (NYA), access to an auditorium for briefing, and is far enough out of the crowds to be useful.
- mcd
  
  +1. Dunbar is actually a great staging area for an emergency NG post. Hopefully they won’t need to deploy them.
- Q
  
  Exactly. I went to the 2000 and 2008 inaugurations, and there was a huge number of military vehicles parked along the perimeter and inside the restricted zone. This is nothing new.
- Truxtoner
  
  What lot? There is no lot. They literally just took over O Street.
  - Truxtoner
    
    Oh and made it clear you could not drive or walk down it, despite the fact it is a source of parking for a lot of people in the neighborhood, some of whom were actually still parked there.
Jay

I saw the headline and presumed the troops were deployed to protect against bears. Hey… “any eventuality”… you can never be too careful, right?
- navyard
  
  Especially Grizzlies. Right Betsy DaVos?
bruno

Snyder’s makes potato chips too, I think.
- camelcolored
  
  +1
E.

As I posted in a reply above, of course deploying the Guard to such an event makes sense. But is it too much to ask that the neighbors be alerted that this would happen? That the street would be closed at times? I know, of course, that expecting to actually receive 72 hour notice on temp no parking is foolishness.
KK

I can see Russia from my house
former petworth

Not one Seinfeld reference – this truly is a sad time in America.
- anon
  
  +1, just thinking about those pretzels made me thirsty.

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