Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/21/national-guard-soldiers-forced-to-sleep-in-senate-parking-garage-urinate-in-street-after-securing-capitol.html
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Disgraceful.
I understand they may not have luxury when deployed- but let them use your damn restrooms - find them somewhere warm in the building - there’s plenty of empty federal buildings due to Covid where they could sleep.
And they congressional gym has showers. Rotate them in every 2 days if the schedule is tight. You all can skip the damn gym for a week or two.
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You cannot tell me that there are no hotel rooms available in DC right now.
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Third Amendment restrictions?
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Not a private residence, so they could legally commandeer them, but I’m talking about them, well whoever is in charge, paying.
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Don’t apply as long as the room is paid for. They could probably get a nice block discount.
Heck, just some cots in the conference rooms and a good schedule rotation would work.
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Trump hotel nearby had cut rate rooms available.
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If I were them I’m not sure I’d feel safe in a hotel room anyway, especially one that had recently been occupied by a bunch of Covid-spreading Trumpists.
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Prolly not. In Engblom v Carey (1982) the US Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit held, among other things that the 3rd Amendment extended beyond homeowners and held for anyone who had control or access to a property. In that case, the staff residences of a correctional facility. (Relevant here is that the decision also held that the National Guard counted as troops)
Fun fact: the 3rd Amendment is the only Amendment to the US Constitution that hasn’t made it to the SCOTUS as the primary basis for a challenge.
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We aren’t often trying to billet troops in private houses these days.
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Simply from a downtime perspective, I hope any troops that haven’t been to DC before are allowed some R & R to do some sightseeing. Do troops get into some places free or at a discount?
ETA: I found a few. Very few.
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Sure. But amendments get taken to the SCOTUS for all sorts of reasons, and that one is an original. Even the 25th was cited in 1974 in Lublin v Panish.
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The Smithsonian is free to all comers, and is truly a must-see…but it’s closed right now due to the pandemic.
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What the everloving FUCK is WRONG with this country, that 65 GODDAMN YEARS later, people are still being shitty to other people about using the fucking bathroom?!?
Not having anywhere to sleep is fucked up too; however, hearing this nonsense right after hearing about how 45’s brat treated the secret service, and all the ongoing bullshit with Transfolks and bathrooms… let’s just say it really irks the hell out of me.
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I recently posted here briefly about what it is like to live under martial law based on my experiences in the aftermath of the Los Angeles Rodney King insurrection.
This is what happens when the military is used as an occupation and police force. I absolutely understand that security continues to be paramount in DC, which will never be the same again my lifetime, if ever. That doesn’t change the fact that this is a (probably necessary) full on occupation, and those thousands of Guardsmen and Guardswomen need to pee and sleep some place.
I’m no fan of the military in any way, but these folks are human after all and I don’t think that these folks having bodily functions under damp and freaking cold winter weather be seen as being equal to the capitol marauders intentionally smearing shit all over walls and statuary.
When ya’ gotta go, ya’ gotta go.
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For what it’s worth, the displacement was rectified by the same evening. From the article:
“Thousands of National Guardsmen were allowed back into the Capitol Thursday night, hours after U.S. Capitol Police officials ordered them to vacate the facilities…”
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This is absolutely unacceptable. These brave men and women dropped everything to rush and defend our capital from the Trump Cult and protected our new President during the inauguration and this is the thanks that they get? I am sure many of them have endured a lot worse while stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan but they are in Washington DC. These people deserve at least one warm meal and a place to rest in comfort and its not in a parking garage. The idiot that is responsible has left town like a scared dog but we still have to take care of our guard. If it means a little discomfort in the House and Senate that is too bad. Fix this problem and now !
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More security theater weakness on display in our capitol. How do we not have a plan to accommodate a large force?
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I propose that nobody is allowed to use the bathroom anymore. If we’re going to have a racist, trans-phobic, and just generally obnoxious society, then everyone can piss their pants together for all I care.
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It’s extra infuriating because this is one of those things that people act like is some ancient (and thus immutable) tradition. Gender separation of restrooms is extremely recent- a remnant of the Victorian Separate Spheres philosophy based on the idea that women had to be isolated from the world or they would melt or explode or whatever the fuck. Sadly, this was actually an improvement at the time. Prior to this, public restrooms were for men only and women had to pee in the street, or use an alley and then maybe get raped.
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