NEW ORLEANS, La. – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Louisiana spoke out Thursday against Governor Jeff Landry’s request to the U.S. Secretary of Defense to deploy up to 1,000 National Guard troops across urban areas in Louisiana. While the governor said the request was intended to address crime, the ACLU called it a misuse of power that could endanger residents rather than protect them.
“The National Guard is supposed to protect our state during real emergencies, not to serve as political props,” said Alanah Odoms, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana. She added, “Flooding the cities we love with military troops is dangerous and would make people afraid to go about their daily lives.”
Odoms stressed that safe communities are built through investment in neighborhoods, not through a military presence.
The ACLU of Louisiana also raised concerns about hurricane season, warning that National Guard resources should remain available for natural disasters. They said that deploying troops for policing “would mean that our communities are at risk of not getting the support they need in genuine emergencies, like natural disasters.”
Governor Landry pointed to crime levels in justifying his request, but the ACLU said the military is not trained for civilian policing. “We cannot allow military policing of our communities to become normalized,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project.
The ACLU further cautioned against the broader dangers of military involvement in civilian law enforcement. “When military troops police civilians, we have an intolerable threat to individual liberty and the foundational values of this country,” Shamsi said. She warned that such actions could instill fear in residents and deepen community divisions.
According to the ACLU, militarized approaches create fear rather than safety. The organization called on Governor Landry to withdraw his request and instead focus on strategies that build trust and invest in communities, rather than “political grandstanding that puts Louisiana communities at risk.”
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