"It has happened here." - National Guard patrolled Wilmington for 9 months in 1968

[muriel_volestrangler]

Via the Slacktivist blog, the story of how a governor left the Delaware National Guard on the streets of Wilmington for 9 months after the assassination of Martin Luther King, and it took the election of a new governor to remove them. Somewhat shamefully, the old governor was a Democrat, and the new one a Republican:

A simple but ugly factor kept the National Guard on Wilmington's streets so long after riots following the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 40 years ago this month.

"Fear-mongering," said former Gov. Russell W. Peterson. Now 91 1/2, he was the man who ended the controversial patrols after their 9 1/2-month duty stained Wilmington as the city with the longest military presence in U.S. peacetime history.

In the 1968 election, Peterson unseated Gov. Charles L. Terry Jr. 104,474 votes to 102,360 -- the post's narrowest win of the century. Crime rose during the patrols, he said, and even some black friends bought Terry's prediction that blacks were stockpiling guns for all-out violence that was sure to erupt if patrols ended.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080415/NEWS02/804150335/1006/NEWS

From Peterson's news conference before taking office:

"It has happened here."

...
What has happened in Wilmington is a warning not only to the citizens of Delaware but to all Americans. The deeply disturbing fact is that many citizens not only favored, but demanded the military patrols.

American tradition says, “It can’t happen here.”

Our experience in Delaware tells us that, to an alarming extent, it has happened here. History tells us that when people voluntarily accept military controls, for any reason, they often end up losing their own freedom.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080415/NEWS02/80415017/1006/NEWS

[NNN0LHI]

1. Chicago looked like a war zone in 1968

As did most other major US city.

Troops everywhere.

Don