National Guard troops started to arrive in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday and federal agents were seen on the streets after President Donald Trump federalized the Metropolitan Police Department.
Troops were seen arriving this morning at the Guard’s headquarters in the city.
Trump said he’s bringing in 800 National Guard members to assist with law enforcement in D.C. during a White House briefing Monday in which he announced historic restrictions on local control over the District.
Trump said he wanted to rescue the District from “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor” at the briefing. He painted D.C. as a city of lawlessness, using that as a reason for declaring a public safety emergency.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called Trump’s directive “unsettling and unprecedented” but said the city would cooperate with the administration to the extent that the law allows.
Local officials, including Bowser, pushed back on Trump’s characterization, and experts told the News4 I-Team that violent crimes are down.
Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) statistics show a 26% drop in violent crime this year so far, compared to the same period last year. The beating of a 19-year-old former DOGE staffer during an alleged attempted carjacking by teens appeared to hit a nerve with Trump last week.
Trump ordered federal agents to patrol streets last week and on Monday touted arrests made by federal officers. Federal officers were seen on D.C. streets Monday, including some wearing gear reading U.S. Border Patrol.
What happens now?
Troops from the D.C. National Guard are expected to be on the ground Tuesday morning, a White House official told NBC News.
A second White House official said the D.C. National Guard members will be assigned to “protect federal assets, provide a safe environment for law enforcement officers and deter violent crime through their presence.”
During his White House briefing, Trump added, “We will bring in the military if it’s needed” but said, “I don’t think we’ll need it.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi will lead MPD and new Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terry Cole will be interim federal commissioner of MPD, Trump said. Cole was sworn in at the DEA last month.
“Crime in D.C. is ending and ending today,” Bondi said.
The mayor and Chief of Police Pamela Smith said they will coordinate with federal officials. Bowser said she reached out to Bondi for a meeting.
It wasn’t immediately clear how long the takeover might last or exactly what it might mean. It could also face challenges in court.
Congress still has power over things like the budget and laws passed by the city council, but would have to repeal the Home Rule Act to expand federal power in the District.
Bowser flatly stated that the city’s hands are tied and that her administration has little choice but to comply. “We could contest that,” she said of Trump’s definition of a crime emergency, “but his authority is pretty broad.”
She also made a reference to Trump’s “so-called emergency” and concluded, “I’m going to work every day to make sure it’s not a complete disaster.”
What does Trump’s executive order on D.C. crime say?
In an executive order declaring that “crime is out of control in the District of Columbia,” the president ordered the mayor to “provide the services of the Metropolitan Police force for Federal purposes.”
Trump evoked Section 740 of the Home Rule Act, which allows for the president to take over the Metropolitan Police Department for 48 hours, with possible extensions to 30 days, during times of emergencies. No president has done so before, said Monica Hopkins, executive director of the ACLU of Washington.
Some key points from the executive order include:
- Declaring that “special conditions of an emergency nature exist that require the use of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (Metropolitan Police force) for Federal purposes.”
- Delegates the president’s authority to use D.C. police to the U.S. Attorney General, and directs her to regularly update the president.
- Directs D.C.’s mayor to provide Metropolitan Police Department services “as the Attorney General may deem necessary and appropriate.”
- Says, “the costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the Department of Justice.”
What do other D.C. leaders and residents say?
The D.C. Council criticized the takeover of the police department, saying there is no federal emergency.
“This is a manufactured intrusion on local authority,” Council members said in a statement.
“Further, the National Guard has no public safety training or knowledge of local laws. The Guard’s role does not include investigating or solving crimes in the District,” the statement read in part.
D.C.’s police union said it supports Trump’s action.
as the president prepared to speak, crowds gathered on 16th Street NW, not far from the White House. Many of the demonstrators wore black t-shirts with the words “Free DC” in white below the emblem of the D.C. flag. They held up signs saying “#TimeToResist” and “Free D.C. release the Epstein files.”
“I want to be clear that this is not about crime. This is about what Trump is trying to do to D.C. in order to take over D.C. and silence us,” an activist told the crowd.
But not all D.C. residents are against the move to federalize the police force.
“I’m happy Trump is gonna have his department take over the police department. I think it’s needed, I think we will have some results,” said Leroy Thorpe, who founded Citizen Organized Patrol Efforts, a group that patrols the streets of Chinatown doing violence prevention work.
“With the mayor being in power so long, I think she’s kinda used to how things are going. And I think Donald Trump really wants to clean it up. And I’m all for it,” another group member, Jesse McKnight, said.
“These kids are getting out of hand. They been out of hand. Something has to be done. Too many people dying out here, too many innocent people,” COPE volunteer Cheryl Watson said.
from Local – NBC4 Washington https://ift.tt/W7kh3mi
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