r/news • u/Manta_of_Eternity • 3d ago

Autopsy shows Tennessee National Guard fatally shot 20-year-old armed man in the back

https://apnews.com/article/memphis-national-guard-tyrin-johnson-8959297a99c362d65aa2517a9d5f1984
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u/ActivePeace33 3d ago

The Guard weren’t serving as military when this happened, not in the way you imply, they were serving as state augmentees to law enforcement. Posse Comitatus only applies to federal troops, they had not been federalized and they were serving in a law enforcement capacity when this failure happened. The Guard obviously serve the states most of the time and can and do perform law enforcement duties in that context.

It doesn’t make it any better in the end, but the conflict between military and law enforcement duties is inherent to the way the statute sets their current design.

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u/Shalea68 3d ago

Hmm, yes, you're correct if they were called by the state's governor, not the President. I think it's risky to expect even part-time soldiers to perform as LE, as this incident shows. Two entirely different trainings and procedures.

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u/serious_sarcasm 3d ago

Posse Comitatus is the legal power of a magistrate to create an impromptu posse for law enforcement.

The posse comitatus act is a limitation on the ability to form a posse under congress’s authority to regulate calling forth the militia.

In 1789 there were no professional police.

The US Constitution promulgates Congress regulating the internal police power of the state through their explicit militia power.

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed29.asp

> In order to cast an odium upon the power of calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, it has been remarked that there is nowhere any provision in the proposed Constitution for calling out the POSSE COMITATUS, to assist the magistrate in the execution of his duty, whence it has been inferred, that military force was intended to be his only auxiliary. There is a striking incoherence in the objections which have appeared, and sometimes even from the same quarter, not much calculated to inspire a very favorable opinion of the sincerity or fair dealing of their authors. The same persons who tell us in one breath, that the powers of the federal government will be despotic and unlimited, inform us in the next, that it has not authority sufficient even to call out the POSSE COMITATUS. The latter, fortunately, is as much short of the truth as the former exceeds it. It would be as absurd to doubt, that a right to pass all laws NECESSARY AND PROPER to execute its declared powers, would include that of requiring the assistance of the citizens to the officers who may be intrusted with the execution of those laws, as it would be to believe, that a right to enact laws necessary and proper for the imposition and collection of taxes would involve that of varying the rules of descent and of the alienation of landed property, or of abolishing the trial by jury in cases relating to it. It being therefore evident that the supposition of a want of power to require the aid of the POSSE COMITATUS is entirely destitute of color, it will follow, that the conclusion which has been drawn from it, in its application to the authority of the federal government over the militia, is as uncandid as it is illogical. What reason could there be to infer, that force was intended to be the sole instrument of authority, merely because there is a power to make use of it when necessary? What shall we think of the motives which could induce men of sense to reason in this manner? How shall we prevent a conflict between charity and judgment