Wash Post editorial sees possible short term success in Trump's decision to send National Guard to DC
"However unpopular he might be in the deep-blue District, Trump is trying to deliver on the law-and-order message of his presidential campaign," the Post stated on Monday. "He might not delve into the weeds of criminal justice, but lawmakers in the city and on Capitol Hill have an opportunity to enact policies that will help."
Trump's decision to federalize the D.C. police force and send National Guard troops to the city on Monday came on the heels of a foiled carjacking involving one of his administration's staffers.
Edward Coristine, nicknamed "Big Balls," a programmer formerly appointed to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), was assaulted around 3:00 a.m. last Sunday by a group of teenagers in the city's Logan Circle neighborhood. The teens attempted to carjack him and a woman, whom police identified as his significant other, according to authorities.
The paper's editorial board urged the Trump administration, as well as federal and local lawmakers, to commit to enacting "sustainable fixes" to crime in the city.
"It's one thing to get tough, but it's also essential to enact sustainable fixes. Crime is a serious problem, and fighting it requires a serious commitment — from this administration, as well as federal lawmakers, the mayor, the D.C. Council, prosecutors and local judges," they argued.
The Post contended that while the increased security on the streets of D.C. may "deter crime and keep some troublemakers from going out after dark for the rest of the summer," his efforts will likely have "limited value" unless more sustainable actions are taken, and warned that a prolonged presence of troops in the city could eventually "agitate residents."
According to the editorial board, what D.C. desperately needs is more police officers, but achieving that goal would require the help of Congress in restoring the city's budget.
"In 2023, then-Police Chief Robert J. Contee III warned that the city's force had fallen to a half-century low of about 3,350 officers, forcing the city to spend millions of dollars on overtime. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and the D.C. Council have already dedicated millions in their recent budget to increase staffing, as part of a goal to reach 4,000 officers by 2031," the editorial reported. "Congress could restore the city's budget, which it cut while averting a shutdown earlier this year."
Other than increasing the number of police officers in the city, The Post pointed out two other major issues facing D.C. — both having to do with the city's youth. The paper argued that it is imperative that the city continues to prosecute juvenile offenders and also tackle the school system's truancy problem.
"If the D.C. attorney general's office applies justice consistently, young people can expect real consequences when they hurt others. In 2024, 73 percent of juvenile cases were prosecuted — up from less than half in 2019. That's an improvement, but the number could be higher," The Post asserted. "The city also has trouble with truancy, which is closely intertwined with youth crime. Strides have been made to keep students in school. The overall number of chronically absent kids reached pre-pandemic levels last year. Still, more than half of D.C. high-schoolers continued to miss 10 percent of the academic year."
In conclusion, the paper's editorial board maintained that the issues facing D.C. "are not the types of problems that can be easily tackled from the Oval Office or by swarming the city's streets with Humvees," and noted that these problems require "sustained attention" to ensure that crime continues to fall after the National Guard leaves the city.
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