NAACP to governor: Declare martial law

NAACP to governor: Declare martial law:

"An NAACP official has demanded the governor of Pennsylvania call out the National Guard, suspend civil liberties and impose martial law to deal with a recent wave of shootings.

Stanley Lawson, president of the Harrisburg Chapter of the NAACP, urged Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell deploy the National Guard for at least one month and enforce a curfew after more than a dozen shootings rocked the city, according to the Patriot News.

Many of the shots were fired during daylight hours, and one man was killed at a busy intersection in the middle of the afternoon June 24.

'The Guard is for floods and natural disasters. I don't know any more of a natural disaster than of our young people being killed,' he said at a June meeting at Capitol Presbyterian Church.

'It's time for some real action,' he said. 'Right now the important thing is to stop this madness.'

'We're beyond what the Harrisburg police department can do. We need help,' Lawson said.

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According to the report, Lawson referenced the 1968 race riots following the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tenn. And the subsequent deployment of National Guard troops.

Rather than drugs, robberies and gang activity, Lawson said the shootings were most likely due to fear.

'The young men, it's fear, it's just fear,' he said. 'They think: 'I'm going to get them before they get me.''

But Gov. Rendell's office told WND calling out the National Guard and imposing martial law – a system where military rule overrides civil law in times of war or emergency – is not an option."