Does a viral video of "National Guard troops" prove that New York is about to declare martial law? No, that's not true: The particular unit captured on camera has been patrolling transportation hubs in New York City since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. According to the spokesperson for the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs, the presence of the National Guard in the streets has nothing to do with martial law.
The claim appeared in a now-deleted TikTok video published on September 4, 2024 (still image archived here, copy of video saved to YouTube here). The narrator began:
Look, guys, the National Guard. National Guard is now all over Brooklyn, man. There aren't no cops anywhere -- that's only National Guard now everywhere. Martial law coming, man.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Sep 5 16:23:18 2024 UTC)
The video captured two uniformed people walking into the Dekalb Avenue subway station in Brooklyn, New York (archived here), implying that the sighting proves the imminence of martial law.
When asked about the claim of imminent martial law, Director of Public Affairs at New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs Eric Durr (archived here) told Lead Stories over the phone on September 5, 2024:
That's plain wrong.
He continued to explain the functions of the National Guard:
The National Guard has both state and federal duties. So in our federal duties, we deploy overseas and become part of the army of the Air Force. In our state duties, we conduct missions that assist the state of New York, so that can be a tornado, flood, COVID-19... So what we have is we have people in New York City who are at the direction of the governor of New York on state active duty. That means we're paid for by the state. We take orders from the governor. We have been assisting the city of New York in manning these migrant shelters. So that's why there are soldiers out in the streets.
That mission is also described on the New York Military and Naval Affairs website (archived here).
Durr added that, as of this writing, the presence of the National Guard in shelters is currently being reduced, not increased.
In the video, the specific inscription on the back of the man's bulletproof vest reads:
Joint Task Force Empire Shield
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Sep 5 16:44:01 2024 UTC)
Formed after 9/11, the Joint Task Force Empire Shield (archived here) is a unit (archived here) "staffed with Army and Air National Guard personnel along with members of the New York Naval Militia and New York Guard" that can be employed by the governor "through the adjutant general."
There is nothing new about the Joint Task Force Empire Shield being seen in New York City, said Durr:
It is the security augmentation force, again, acting on state orders that assist law enforcement in the subways, the train stations, at the airports. So we've always had, for 20-something years, assisting police under the orders of the governor in the train stations.
When New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced additional security measures aimed at combating crimes on the subway in the spring of 2024, it was the 750 members of the Joint Task Force Empire Shield and 250 state police officers who were recruited for the mission. As the governor's website (archived here) explicitly says, it was done "to supplement the NYPD's enhanced baggage checks at heavily trafficked areas," not to replace the NYPD, as the video claims.
The Dekalb Avenue station captured in the video is located between the Oculus (archived here) in Downtown Manhattan and the Atlantic Avenue - Barclays Center station in Brooklyn. Both are major transportation hubs.
Furthermore, the Joint Task Force Empire Shield is headquartered in Brooklyn (archived here). Thus, their presence in the borough is not new and not out of the ordinary.
The video that is the focus of this fact check has been recycled in other claims. One (archived here), for example, implied that the National Guard members were coming to the city because of Donald Trump's sentencing (archived here).
To that, Durr said:
That post there -- we are not bringing in soldiers to prepare for the sentencing of Donald Trump on September 18.
Rumors about a declaration of martial law are not new.
For example, they spiked In New York during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, as the state imposed lockdowns to minimize the spread of the virus. As of this writing, a search across the New York governor's website for the key phrase "martial law" (archived here) only produced transcripts of then-Governor Andrew Cuomo refuting the claims about the purported enforcement of such measures.
Lead Stories reached out to the New York Governor's Office and NYPD for additional comments but did not receive an immediate response. If we get a reply, this story will be updated as appropriate.
Other Lead Stories fact checks about current events can be found here.
