Maj. Adam DeMarco described such preparations — including officials’ failure to acquire a loud announcement device for warning protesters to disperse — in an August letter responding to follow-up questions after he testified before the House Committee on Natural Resources in June about federal officers’ efforts earlier that month. DeMarco, who described himself as one of the senior National Guard officials on the scene, ran as a Democrat for Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District in 2018.
DeMarco wrote that he responded saying that the DC National Guard had neither device, and that to his knowledge, no such acoustic device was used at Lafayette Square. When he looked into getting the acoustic device the next day, the DC National Guard told him “that they were no longer seeking” it.
Therefore, the US Park Service’s “warnings to disperse” did not come from that system but from “a red and white megaphone” that DeMarco saw used, he wrote. He referenced in his in-person testimony that even 30 feet from the megaphone, the “warnings to disperse were barely audible and I was only able to discern several words” — while the front line of the protesters was even further away from the warning.
He also referenced a weapons transfer to the DC National Guard the afternoon of the protest that he later learned contained “approximately 7,000 rounds of ammunition.”
The Pentagon responded Thursday that the inquiry had been made as a matter of “due diligence and prudent military planning” and that no further action had been taken.
“On June 1st, a military police staff officer from the Joint Force Headquarters-National Capitol Region (JFHQ-NCR), as a matter of due diligence and prudent military planning, inquired informally about capabilities across the full-spectrum of non-lethal systems, to include the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) and Active Denial System (ADS),” said Col. Robert Phillips, a spokesman for the joint force. “JFHQ-NCR does not possess these systems, did not request such systems, and no further action was taken as a result of the officer’s E-Mail query.”
A Defense Department official briefed on the matter minimized DeMarco’s account, the Post reported, and asserted that emails inquiring about particular weapons were routine in assessing available inventory. The official also told the paper that federal police failed to acquire a heat ray device during the early days of demonstrations in the city.
DeMarco’s attorney David Laufman disputed that characterization on Wednesday, saying that there “there is nothing ‘routine’ about inquiring about the availability of a heat ray to use against American citizens exercising their First…
Read More: Army National Guard major told Congress feds requested heat ray and stockpiled