As a reminder, Bill Barr was furious in 1992 that Bush Sr. wouldn't let him handle the protests/rebellion following the Rodney King verdict as a military matter. Barr is EAGER to guide Trump now and appeal to all Trump's worst instincts in deploying vicious military violence. https://twitter.com/HawaiiDelilah/status/1266244199839490049

Bill Barr said that what followed the acquittals of the Rodney King cops “was not civil unrest or the product of some festering injustice,” but “was gang activity, basically opportunistic.” Barr briefed Bush on the riots by telling him it was "centered on street gang activity."

Barr also proposed just "using the regular army" against the Black protestors in LA. Barr: "We had just gone through an exercise 2 years earlier in St. Croix, so I was very familiar with how to use regular Army in a domestic situation.” This is who's in Trump's ear right now.

Almost a decade after the LA Rebellion, Barr said he had one regret: not pursuing federal indictments against people in the Los Angeles community. "One of my disappointments is that we were prepared, and set up task forces, and could have brought federal indictments against . . .

. . . a lot of the people involved, the gangs involved. . . . We could have cleaned that place up." Barr said he regrets never "bringing a federal against these people" and "never pursue[ing] the gangsters."

The point of this history is to point out that, in 1992, Bush Sr. wouldn't let Barr fully off the leash to cause untold devastation to the South Los Angeles community. Now, Barr has a like-minded bigot and law-and-order authoritarian accomplice in Trump, and it is terrifying.

(If anyone would like sources for any of these quotes, please let me know).