Sixty years is a very, very long time in fast-moving US politics. But that is how long ago it is since a US president ordered the national guard into a state without a request from the state governor.
The line between federal and state-level law enforcement is one of the many very clear demarcations of authority in the US federal system. It is another hallowed line that Donald Trump has crossed. From a purely public order standpoint, Trump’s dispatch to Los Angeles of a 4,000-strong contingent from the national guard, bolstered by 700 US marines, appears to be having the intended effect.