By Joe Saunders | Western Journal
Marines on duty guarding a federal facility in Los Angeles on Friday briefly detained a man who later said he’d tried to go under a yellow boundary tape and was asked to halt, according to news reports.
While the man apparently posed no threat and was later released, according to Reuters, the incident did prompt the arm of the Defense Department in charge of security for the continental United States to confirm the Marines were acting under appropriate legal authority in the first known detention related to their Los Angeles deployment.
Active duty forces “may temporarily detain an individual in specific circumstances,” a spokesperson for U.S Northern Command told Reuters.
A video of the incident from Reuters is below:
It’s important to note that the Marines don’t have powers to make actual arrests. But, as Reuters reported, they may hold individuals before transferring them to civilian authorities.
“Any temporary detention ends immediately when the individual(s) can be safely transferred to the custody of appropriate civilian law enforcement personnel,” a Northern Command representative told the news service.
In the case of the man detained on Friday, the incident appeared to be non-confrontational.
The man was identified as 27-year-old Marcos Leao, who told Reuters he was an Army veteran who’d been at the Wilshire Federal Building to visit an office of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Leao said he was on his way to an appointment in the office when he rushed past the tape.
“He looked up to find a Marine sprinting toward him,” the AP reported.
“I had my headphones in, so I didn’t hear them,” Leao said, according to the AP. “They told me to get down on the ground. I basically complied with everything they were saying.”
He appeared to have no complaints about the incident, saying he thought the Marines treated him “very fairly,” according to The New York Times.
“Mr. Leao said he tried to duck under yellow caution tape cordoning off a plaza area outside the building. He said he was undisturbed by his brief detention,” the Times reported.
“They’re just doing their job,” Leo said, according to Reuters.
Still, the incident put a spotlight on the role the Marines are playing in the city, which has been convulsed by riots since June 6, when the Department of Homeland Security began a series of enforcement actions as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.