As protests continue across the United States, the National Guard has been activated in 23 states to support local law enforcement. 17,000 members had been deployed as of Monday morning according to a CNN report, a three-fold increase in just over a day and roughly the same number as active-duty troops serving in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Approximately 45,000 members of the National Guard have already been deployed across the country in response to the coronavirus outbreak, bringing the total number activated to 66,700.
In a statement, Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said that "the hardest mission we do is responding in times of civil unrest" and that “Guard personnel assigned to these missions are trained, equipped and prepared to assist law enforcement authorities and first responders." As the following map shows, the National Guard has been activated in nearly half of U.S. states and D.C. with the list including Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
