National Guard troops seized Anna King, slamming her to the ground and leaving her with injuries that required surgery, according to a federal tort claim

A retired U.S. Army captain and Iraq War veteran is taking legal action after National Guard troops approached her outside her Washington, D.C. home, pushed her to the ground and detained her in an aggressive, caught-on-camera confrontation.

Anna King, who received a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for her service, was cornered on her front porch by three National Guard troops on the evening of May 8.

“Get away from me right now,” King can be heard telling the guards in footage taken on a Ring security camera. “You have absolutely no authority to detain me.”

Footage shared by the ACLU of the District of Columbia shows King trying to go inside her home as the men, three Idaho National Guard members, grab King and force her to the ground as she screams for them to get off her.

  • DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    32
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    6 hours ago

    “I know for a fact that protesting is one of the very protected things we have here,” she continued.

    And I know for a fact that that isn’t true. This article proves it. Its sad as fuck but USA is toast man. There’s no fixing any of this anymore. Cats out of the bag, toothpaste is out of the tube, bullet is out of the casing.

    We’re fucked.

    • Serinus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      27
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      6 hours ago

      How the fuck is this supposed to help?

      Instead of just giving in, like you, she’s fighting to keep it.

      • DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        6 hours ago

        Idk man maybe if enough people stop lying to themselves and everyone around them we will all get pissed off enough to actually do something

        But as it stands I’m not about to take up arms and get shot in the street while the media paints me as a terrorist for actually defending democracy. Has to be a LOT of people doing it all at once.

        Maybe if we stop these illusions and lies and rip the mask off enough people will be pissed off and change will happen.

        Idk.

        But I know that peacefully protesting and then having to sue when the guard beats the brakes off of you for doing it and getting a sweet settlement paid out in tax dollars isn’t helping shit, to be honest.

        I stand with this woman too I’m not saying I don’t or that she shouldn’t protest. But that line about it being protected is 110% completely false. Where is the protection?

        I’ll tell you though this bullshit about making some signs and singing songs together isn’t fucking working, man.

        You see that right?

        • some_designer_dude@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          5 hours ago

          You’re right that the problem is coordination. You have the numbers, but without direction you’re just a bunch of individuals so you get… signs and songs. Those are definitely starts, though. They both get attention and inform.

          • DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            5 hours ago

            It IS important you and the other dude are right I don’t mean to diminish it completely I am just so burnt out on all this shit going on… So, so badly fatigued with it all.

            I voted today for one of the only ones that didn’t take AIPAC money and part of me feels good about that!

            And then the realist in me knows that that specific candidate has a zero percent chance of winning. I could have stayed home and shit all over my bedroom floor and it would have had the same exact effect.

            I’ve made SO many signs and gone to so many organizational events and talked and talked and, at one point even believed, BELIEVED it was all going to make a difference and I’m just fucking tired of lying to myself and everyone else around me at this point in time.

            We ALL know how to actually fix it and I can’t type it here or I’ll probably get permabanned but we all know the fix. Its a tale as old as time.

            So, I’m kind of trying that method now. Let’s just fucking put it all full out on display and stew in it until the pressure cooker builds and we all take up arms and fix the problem at the root. This wishful thinking and organizing bullshit isn’t working anymore.

            So maybe if enough people get angry and despair enough to the point where they think they might kill themselves instead they will realize that the suits are the ones that need killing.

            We got a little glimpse of it with that Luigi dude. Everyone loved his ass and the suits couldn’t believe it. Clutching their pearls and wearing that stupid look on their face like they just can’t wrap their heads around WHY people want them to fucking die.

            I have been drinking a bit so this is probably sounding WILD but the fact of the matter is that it is the cold hard truth of it now.

            Signs, peaceful protests, voting all of it is wishful thinking at this point in time.

            What we need to be doing is blocking all the exits on all the senators and congressmen and state representatives houses and burn them alive inside them until we pry this country back from the hands of the rich parasitic class.

            Seriously, its all public. We can all find out right now where every single one of them live its trivially easy and I just keep waiting for the day that it pops off and it hasn’t ever come and I’m afraid now that it won’t.

            So, we have people make signs and sing songs and being awareness and that’s all great I’ve done that too and I love the vibe.

            But haven’t we been doing that since Reagan? It has just gotten worse. And worse. And worse. And worse. And worse. And worse.

            Its like credit card debt, every year we get 30% worse. Lose 30% more freedoms. Have 30% more of the wealth consolidated in the nice manicured lotioned hands of people who have never had to do a day of work in their entire lives.

            I’m tired of pretending that signs and songs are going to fix it. Its not.

    • teslekova@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      4 hours ago

      Because when you’re a dictator and you want to oppress or attack a population, you get troops from nowhere near that location so that they will not be attacking their local community. Ideally you want hillbilly idiots from the arse end of nowhere so you can tell them anything you like about who they are supposed to beat the shit out of.

      Idaho, eh? Yep, that’s about right.

  • corbindallas@fedinsfw.app
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    31
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    8 hours ago

    this country is fucked to the core

    i served with some STUPID fucking jarheads

    just the fucking brain deadest rocks.

    not a one of them would have engaged in behaviors like this. they likely would have gone to jail for unaliving bitches making the decisions to remove your constitutional rights

    now? generations of poorly educated and economically battered citizens becoming powerful and fighting thier own countrymen

    we are absolutely fucked.

    • DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      7 hours ago

      Stuff like this has been going on since the 1950’s, though.

      National guard killed those college kids at Kent state.

      Army raped, tortured and murdered all those kids women and old men in My Lai.

      They also gang raped that 6 and 14 year old girl in Iraq (Mahmudiyah rape and murders)

      I don’t mean to discredit you and I’m glad you were with good people but man this problem has been pressure cooking for DECADES and it hasn’t gotten any better, at all.

      They wanted bloodthirsty animals to be soldiers and police officers and now they act shocked that they are acting like a bunch of bloodthirsty animals. Its like the pikachu shocked face meme.

  • HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    137
    ·
    11 hours ago

    This is why absolutely nobody should be joining the US military. Its all “support our troops” until those troops are women, people of color, LGBTQ+, anti-war, anti-Zionist and/or simply not a fascist. Then you become an enemy of the state.

    • mushroommunk@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      edit-2
      8 hours ago

      Don’t even have to be any of those. It’s “support our troops” until they come home, then they’re all chattel.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.ioBanned from community
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      50
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 hours ago

      This is why absolutely nobody should be joining the US military.

      This and all the imperialism.

      • Kaligalis@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        9 hours ago

        Nah, the imperialism is fine as long as it’s just desert people dying. It’s for a good cause after all: To secure the resources needed to wage more war.

      • nforminvasion@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        6 hours ago

        Poverty makes people do wild things. It’s an incredible weapon wielded by the rich.

        I absolutely agree that joining the military is a crazy choice, and yet, propaganda works and desperation does unfortunate things to our instincts.

  • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    91
    ·
    10 hours ago

    the National Guard claims that King was approached by the troops because she was a suspect in an assault of a National Guardsman two days earlier.

    King’s attorneys said they believe she was targeted because she has been outspoken against the National Guard’s presence in D.C., including putting signs on her front patio that are critical of their deployment. Two signs read: “Occupation: Troops Out” and “National Guard Stop Being So Embarrassing.”

    • arrow74@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 hour ago

      Let’s say she did assault a member of the national gaurd 2 days ago.

      The national gaurd has zero authority to enter her property and detain her. This is solely a power of the civilian law enforcement, or at least its supposed to be.

    • Farid@startrek.website
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      7 hours ago

      Thank you! This part missing from the description makes no sense to me. I only read it to know the reasoning for the assault, and not for the description of how exactly they slammed her.

  • Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    44
    ·
    10 hours ago

    I hope they can’t sleep at night. I hope their names are released, everyone they love disown them, and they end up unable to find a job, homeless and miserable. Being deployed by a tyrant into Washington DC to assault and arrest non violent protesters who happen to be real service member veterans is Nazi behavior.

    • DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      6 hours ago

      Man I feel you but people like this won’t ever feel like that. They go on to live rich and fulfilling lives and get to retire at 40 because they “served” by harassing civilians and going to weekend warrior training.

      No sleep will ever be lost. They will be decorated and given cush jobs and fat bonuses and the whole 9 yards.

      I don’t say this to just be bleak and doomer centric or whatever I do it because we need to stop acting like these people have remorse for what they are doing. None of this will ever stop until we treat them ALL (law enforcement of any kind) like the subhuman pieces of garbage that they treat us all like.

      I bet, that if as many cops and guardsmen were shot as civilians shot by them shit would start changing. If they feared for their fucking lives just like they make us fear for them every single second of every single day, it would start to change.

      But it won’t. Because people keep trying the whole “I hope they lose sleep over this!” Or whatever. They don’t feel things like normal people do, or they would have never taken the job to put their boot on someone’s throat.

    • Malyca@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 hours ago

      Me too. They gave her nightmares and she has them every day, they should too.

  • frongt@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    11
    ·
    7 hours ago

    That was the gentlest forcible arrest I’ve ever seen.

    They shouldn’t be there or arresting her regardless, though.

    • DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      6 hours ago

      The one where she required surgery for the injuries it caused?

      I saw the video of the old 93 year old woman they arrested for not paying rent and they were super gentle with her.

      Although, not the national guard so I guess that’s not really the same.

      • frongt@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        6 hours ago

        The one where she required surgery for the injuries it caused?

        As claimed by the defense, who always exaggerate claims in cases like this, so that they can walk them back later. Anchoring is a standard negotiation tactic. So, I’ll wait for the trial. I donate monthly to the ACLU, so I’m funding her defense.

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 hours ago

      She was attacked because she was out being cool by fucking with the guard.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.ioBanned from community
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        10 hours ago

        Fucking with fascist collaborators is good and just, so I can’t disagree with her there, but still: Better this happen to someone who was involved in the second-worst war crime of the 21st century (the worst being the Gaza genocide) than someone who wasn’t.