<p class="p1"><span class="s1">As announced Wednesday, the French government will deploy military forces this Saturday to help local police maintain security during the Yellow Vest protests.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The decision follows a violent riot last weekend, when hundreds of protestors set fires, destroyed cars, and looted over 100 businesses in Paris. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The government immediately fired the city’s police chief and announced a ban on protests along the Champs-Elysees Avenue.</span></p>
<p><span class="s1">The Yellow Vest protests, which began last November, have grown increasingly violent as citizens continue to demand economic justice from a leader they criticize as “out of touch.”</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">This weekend, soldiers will protect government buildings while local police focus on “crowd control” and “maintaining law and order,” said government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Troops will be borrowed from the “Sentinelle” anti-terror program, which was put into place in 2015 to protect airports, train stations, and other vulnerable locations.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><strong>Author’s Note:</strong> The Yellow Vest protests are a major problem, but deploying troops to control your own people is a very bad sign. </span><span class="s1">In the United States, soldiers cannot be deployed within a state without permission from that state’s governor. </span></p>