Civil rights leaders say longtime antagonist Trump is flooded with taking over police in the country’s capital.
DC protests Trump on federal police takeover
Washington, D.C. residents and activists protest President Donald Trump’s position as police and the National Guard deployed, taking control of the federal government.
WASHINGTON – Civil rights leaders have blown up President Donald Trump’s move to take over police in the country’s capital, calling it a “federal coup,” gaining power rooted in years of clashes with leaders in cities with black populations.
“There’s undiscussed hostility towards African Americans,” said Gloria Brown Marshall, a professor of constitutional law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. “We’re talking about cities that have a lot of black power.”
On August 11, Trump announced that he would deploy 800 National Guard members to Washington, D.C., calling the city’s crime and homelessness situation “a tragic emergency.”
Trump has long complained about what he called a rise in crime in the city, an unsightly homeless camp, and an unconfirmed protest. He repeatedly threatens to take over the city. It is governed by the council and mayor, but overseen by the council.
“We need to clean up the once beautiful capital and make it beautiful again,” Trump posted earlier this year. “We’re more struggling with crime than ever before. I’ll work with the mayor on this and if it doesn’t happen, I’ll have no choice but to do it myself.”
Civil rights activists have called it another unprecedented overdue, particularly in cities that represent democracy.
NAACP president Derrick Johnson said the National Guard “brave men and women” are part of the country’s defense against domestic emergency situations.
“There is no emergency in DC. Why is he deploying the National Guard?” Johnson said in a statement. “D.C. has the right to govern itself. This federal coup is not necessary.”
The White House opposed such accusations.
“This is why Democrats continue to be so popular among everyday Americans. They think it’s a bad thing about the US president who cracks down on crime in our country’s capital,” Taylor Rogers, deputy reporter secretary at the White House, said in an email. “President Trump makes Washington, DC safer for all Americans by stopping the vicious crimes that have plagued cities.”
“The stage was set.”
Leaders of the Trump administration and Republican Congress clashed with D.C. leaders during George Floyd’s 2020 protest, including when Trump called outside law enforcement to push back protesters during his first term.
The conflict continued during Trump’s second term when Republican lawmakers threatened to withhold federal funds earlier this year if Mayor Muriel Bowser didn’t delete the spelling “Black Live Matter” as per the White House. The word has been deleted.
In February, Republican Senators from Utah and Rep. Andy Ogres from Tennessee introduced Washington and safe surveillance in the All Resident (Bowser) Act repealing the District of Columbia Home Rules Act.
In March, Trump signed an executive order entitled “Make the Columbia District safe and beautiful.”
“D.C. has the right to govern itself.”
Some civil rights leaders have called for a Trump takeover to distract them from the Epstein scandal.
“Trump is simply trying to give them red meat, hoping they’ll be full after he breaks one of their biggest campaign promises,” National Action Network chairman Al Shapton said in a statement. “In the process, people in Washington, D.C., especially those who live on the streets, will suffer, along with the core principles of our democracy, that require the most attention.”
Sen. Angela, a Democrat from Maryland, called Trump’s move “dramatic executive overreach.”
“The city of Washington, DC is not a White House resident, it belongs to the great people of Washington, DC,” Brooks also said. “If he had actually cared about the happiness of the people of Washington, he wouldn’t have blocked DC from spending his money.”
The District of Columbia was once known as “Chocolate City.” Demography has been changing in recent years. The black population is currently just over 40%, with the white population just below that, According to the US Census.
The city has a long history of selecting black leaders, many of which have emerged through the civil rights movement. Bowser is African-American, as are multiple members of the city council and police chief.
“President Trump is pushing the fictional narrative of an overwhelmingly black city… he is plagued by crime to justify the deployment of National Guard resources and advance lawless policing,” said Todd A. Cox, Associate Director Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, in a statement. “But the truth is that DC crime has reached a historic low.”
Other cities could be next
Trump warns he plans to target other cities run by Democratic mayors, including Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.
Other cities need to have plans for this “White House is taking place,” said Brown Marshall, author of “American History of Protest.”
Unlike Washington, she thinks that other cities are “preparing rather than waiting until they become the next city, until they feel shocked, adored and helpless after being rolled by the federal government.”
