An estimated 700 Marines were deployed from Camp Pendleton and the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC) yesterday, on orders from President Trump to “stop Los Angeles from burning down.” The marines are expected to join the nearly 2000 National Guard who have been deployed against the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom who said the state would be pursuing legal action against the deployments, calling the President “deranged” and “dictatorial.”
On Monday afternoon (6/9) at around 2:00 pm in Joshua Tree, a growing group of ten to twelve people gathered in the shade of the Mel Benson Real Estate Building at the intersection of Park Boulevard and Twentynine Palms Highway. The group says they were creating signs after hearing that the Marines would be coming from the combat center located 15 miles east of Joshua Tree in neighboring Twentynine Palms. Shortly after 4:L00 p.m. a man identifying himself as a representative of the property owner asked the group to leave the property. The small office has two “NO TRESPASSING” signs in the window, and as the group moved across Highway 62 to the opposite corner, the man stayed on the phone with the Sheriff’s office and briefly spoke to Z107.7:
Todd, property owner of Mel Benson Real Estate: “They want to protest? I’ve got no problem with that. Stand in the (expletive) highway. Get hit by a car, I don’t care. You’re not going to do it on my property. They’re mad because the military is going? Ok, great. Be mad. But it doesn’t give you the right to stand on people’s property and do what you are doing.”
The group stood on south side of the intersection with signs that read “U.S. in Distress,” “Keep America Free 4 Every One” and “ICE – this is a MORAL MOMENT.”
Earlier in the afternoon white transport buses were spotted traveling east toward Twentynine Palms, and as word spread that those same busses were heading back west toward Joshua Tree, the small but growing group moved back to the north side of the street, this time staying on the sidewalk.
Demonstrator: “The purpose of taking a stand and standing out here in the heat… it may not seem like we are doing much but we’re not going on with ‘business as usual.’ The cars are seeing it, we are right here next to a National Park, they are seeing that the people are not happy and we’re going to stand up in every town, everywhere.”
Around 5:00 p.m. the convoy of buses and military vehicles appeared on Highway 62 and were escorted by CHP through the intersection. A few people in their cars honked and shouted at the police and military as they rolled through Joshua Tree.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s department told Z107.7 that Deputies were requested to escort the Marine convoy to the Riverside County line, as a “precaution in case any issues arose.”
As the convoy made its way through Yucca Valley and approached the grade, one person was arrested during the escort after they stopped their pickup truck in the roadway near Hess Boulevard, briefly blocking the convoy and other traffic from traveling down the hill. Cy Earl, 28, was arrested and released for Obstruction of a Public Officer.
The San Bernardino Sheriff’s department continued the escort until the Riverside County line, where Riverside County deputies took over the escort as the convoy continued toward Los Angeles.
As of 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, there were reports of some arrests overnight in Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Times characterized the protests as “calmer” than Sunday night’s demonstrations. Here in the Morongo Basin there were unconfirmed reports of more buses of troops being deployed overnight. Z107.7 reached out to the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center for comment, but as of Tuesday morning we’ve yet to hear back.
We will continue to update this story as more details become available.
