San Antonio Mayor: Protests with National Guard Here Were ‘Peaceful’, Having Guard Just Helps Those Who Want to Escalate

During an interview aired on Thursday’s “PBS NewsHour,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said that protests in the city have been peaceful and having the National Guard in the city “only feeds into the people that want to escalate tensions.”

Nirenberg said on Wednesday, the city had “a peaceful demonstration in opposition to very cruel and inhumane ways that the Trump administration is carrying out its interpretations of immigration law. Once again, San Antonio has demonstrated that we have a long tradition of peaceful demonstrations and protests in support of human rights and civil rights. And it was there last night. And it was also monitored and supported in people exercising their First Amendment rights by our San Antonio Police Department, which does a great job in supporting people’s right to assemble.”

Co-host Geoff Bennett then asked, “Gov. Abbott says the decision to send in the National Guard will allow for what he called a more robust response. Do you agree?”

Nirenberg responded, “Well, we don’t need the National Guard. We know how to handle these kinds of protests and demonstrations. We have a long history of that. We didn’t ask for the Guard. We weren’t notified about it. My hope is that DPS and the San Antonio Police Department will remain coordinated. But, in my estimation, this kind of anticipatory show of force only feeds into the people that want to escalate tensions. And that’s not the goal if our effort is to protect public safety.”

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