Maryland Democratic leaders are pushing back against the Trump administration’s takeover of Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), offering sharp criticism and introducing bills to combat the president’s efforts.
With President Donald Trump deploying the National Guard, a sharp escalation in law enforcement presence across the District, hundreds of arrests made, and checkpoints erecting across the city, many people across the Washington area are being dissuaded from going out in the nation’s capital, causing a domino effect. In the first weekend after the takeover, nightlife businesses noted a sharp reduction in local commerce.
“The city of Washington D.C. belongs to the great people of Washington, D.C., not the occupant of the White House. If he actually cared about the wellbeing of the people of Washington, he wouldn’t have blocked D.C. from spending its own money in the way it saw fit,” said Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), who helped significantly reduce crime in Prince George’s County while serving as state’s attorney from 2011-2018, before becoming county executive. “This is not only drastic executive overreach but the latest marker in how far this president is willing to go to attack our democracy.”
The White House, which posted a statement on D.C’s crime statistics on their public site, is using social media to post the images of individuals who have been arrested, not convicted— mirroring the advertisements Trump purchased of the “Central Park Five” in major New York newspapers in the late 1980s.
Like several other cities led by African-American mayors, including Baltimore and Oakland, Washington D.C. is currently experiencing a major reduction in violent crime, with reports of rates being the lowest it had been in 30 years in January.
“The District of Columbia has made important progress on public safety in recent years, and can do more if Trump and House Republicans get the hell out of their way and stop blocking D.C. from accessing $1 billion of its own funds to strengthen policing and provide other public services,” said Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D), who plans to introduce a joint resolution to restore local authority of MPD and the D.C.’s National Guard when the Congress reconvenes in September.
Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin introduced a joint resolution in the House of Representatives alongside Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D- D.C.), Rep. Robert Garcia (D- Calif.), and Van Hollen to end Trump’s federalization of MPD. Raskin argues that Trump is militarizing the streets, in part, to reduce the media coverage of a particularly controversial financier.
“The only emergency here is a lawless president experiencing a growing public relations emergency because of his close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and his stubborn refusal to release the Epstein file despite his promise to do so,” Raskin said in a press release. “Trump has made clear that his efforts in D.C., where 700,000 taxpaying American citizens lack the protections of statehood, are part of a broader plan to militarize and federalize the streets of cities around America whose citizens voted against him. The legislation we are introducing today would stop this campaign by ending Trump’s hostile takeover of D.C.’s police force.”.
The National Guard: Absent on January 6, Moore Has No Deployment Plans
Van Hollen also noted a sharp parallel between the desire to protect public safety now, as compared to the U.S. Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021, under the encouragement of President Trump in the final days of his first term.
“Trump was AWOL when the District of Columbia actually needed support from the National Guard to protect it from an insurrectionist mob on January 6. His current takeover is an abuse of power and nothing more than a raw power grab,” said the senator. “It is a direct attack on the ability of the people of the District of Columbia to govern their own affairs.”
The officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6 have also criticized the decision to deploy the National Guard without cause, while refusing to protect the Capitol and assigned officers that day. Four individuals died during the insurrection, and nearly 200 police officers were injured. Four officers died by suicide following the events of that day.
Officer Aquilino Gonell, who was beaten by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, believes Trump’s public safety stance is a deception.
“Whenever he says he’s all for law and order, I have a bridge to sell you,” he said in an interview with The Guardian.
While several Republican governors are supporting the president by deploying the National Guard to the District, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D), a veteran who led troops in Afghanistan, said he would not send guardsmen unless the need is “mission-critical or mission-aligned.”
“I’m embarrassed, I’m angered and, frankly, I’m heartbroken for members of the National Guard asked to take on this mission,” said Moore in an interview with Newsweek.