It’s 5 p.m. and there are National Guard soldiers walking around the Lincoln Memorial right now. Sitting on the steps, I’m watching them pace back and forth in front of the Reflecting Pool.

They look bored. Most of these guys have only been in DC for about a week now. On Sunday, they were issued SIG Sauer M117 pistols and M4 semi-automatic rifles. Some of the guys with M4s have vertical grips on the barrel that allow for increased stability in a firefight. They’re all wearing heavy and uncomfortable tactical vests with armor plates, probably IIIAs.

There were DEA agents and US Marshals here the other day. Unlike the many tourists surrounding us, the agents didn't seem to like having their pictures taken. And if they see a press badge, they’ll start walking away and ignore any questions.

. . .

When I asked my old journalism professor John Fountain if this sounds like Sundown Laws, he wrote back:

“It seems more akin to the old slave patrols or a militarized occupation to enforce, at its worst, a quasi-apartheid and raises the potential of innocents being caught in the crossfire so to speak. I was a kid — age 7 — when National Guardsmen armed with long guns, tanks and in full military gear marched through my neighborhood during the riots in 1968 after Dr. King's assassination when Mayor Daley gave police the order to ‘shoot to kill.’

“Even at that age, it was clear to me that this occupying force was not ‘friendlies’ and that I was potentially one of the enemies.”