Trump's 'safe and beautiful' move against DC homeless camps looks like ugliness to those targeted
She'd been living her 'Girl Scout life,' she said, saving money and looking for work while homeless. When she got word that the law was on its way , she found herself living the scouting motto: Be prepared.
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New York Times
a minute ago
- New York Times
Trump Wants to Fight Democrats on Crime. They're Treading Cautiously.
With his efforts to take control of law enforcement in Washington, D.C., this week, President Trump has pushed the issue of crime back to the foreground of American politics. In doing so, he's invited a fight with Democrats, who are treading cautiously as they seek to forcefully oppose the federal incursion into the nation's capital, something no president has ever attempted, without getting caught up in a debate over public safety on Mr. Trump's terms. Mr. Trump and his Republican allies wielded the sharp increase in violent crime in urban areas during the pandemic as a campaign cudgel, winning control of the House in the 2022 midterms. Mr. Trump expanded his winning coalition two years later, in part with promises to prevent the rest of America from becoming like the cities he called 'unlivable, unsanitary nightmares,' deriding the data that showed improvement across the country. While his tactics in Washington, D.C., are extraordinary, the effort is an actualization of one of his most tried-and-true political arguments: Democrats — often Black Democrats — have let lawlessness run rampant in the cities and states they were elected to run. At a moment when Mr. Trump's approval ratings even among his supporters are declining, he appears to be laying the groundwork for Republicans to once again weaponize the issue in the midterm elections. Mr. Trump has sent National Guard troops to patrol the streets, turned federal law enforcement officers into beat cops and sought to put the local police department fully under his administration's control. And the president has suggested he wants to bring his brand of law and order to Chicago; Baltimore; Oakland, Calif.; and New York, all liberal cities in blue states, while avoiding any mention of high-crime cities in red states, like Memphis or St. Louis. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
a minute ago
- New York Times
For D.C.'s Homeless, Strained Lives Become More Unstable
For some 15 years, David Brown had made a home in Washington Circle, living in a tent with a handful of others in an encampment. On Friday, that home was destroyed — his tent, clothing and other possessions were tossed into a dumpster by police officers carrying out President Trump's crackdown on some of the city's most powerless residents. Left with a fraction of his things, Mr. Brown and his 6-month-old puppy, Molly, moved a block away and slept outside the Foggy Bottom subway station. Sitting in a wheelchair outside the station on Saturday, he was still baffled at what was happening. 'Why is he doing this, for no reason?' he asked of Mr. Trump. The clearing of homeless people off the streets of Washington, part of the president's marshaling of federal forces on the nation's capital, has been more scattered than sweeping, and it is unclear how many of the estimated 900 people who sleep on the city's streets have been affected. But what emerged over the weekend were more stories like Mr. Brown's. Many people are on the move, seeing their lives uprooted and their futures become even more precarious, whether as a result of force or out of fear. Some have moved into shelters. Others have secured temporary hotel rooms with the help of nonprofit groups. Some have taken buses to surrounding areas, or are using donated metro cards to ride the subways back and forth at night. Still others have simply moved to another spot on the streets. David Beatty, who was removed from an encampment between the Kennedy Center and the U.S. Institute for Peace, said he spent the first night after being cleared out behind bushes near the Foggy Bottom subway station. But without his tent or foam mat, he was getting little sleep. His other belongings had been put into storage, thanks to the Georgetown Ministry Center — but he kept his broom and dustpan, which he carried with him as he walked around the city during the day, sweeping up cigarette butts and litter. Making the city safe and beautiful includes 'removing mentally disturbed individuals and homeless encampments,' Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said at a news conference last week. The White House also said that scores of homeless encampments have been cleared since the president issued an executive order in March that included creating a program to beautify the district. His supporters, including Scott Turner, the housing secretary, say the president's measures have been needed to rid the city of blight. Mr. Trump has claimed on social media that authorities would give homeless people somewhere to stay far from the capital, and Ms. Leavitt said they would be offered shelters or addiction and mental health services. But advocates for homeless people say no federal aid to get them help has materialized. 'Precisely zero resources — no money, no vacant federal buildings, no housing — have come from the federal government to support moving people inside,' Amber W. Harding, the executive director of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, said in a statement. Organizations that provide support in the region estimate that several hundreds of people in Washington remain without a place to sleep. They also said that news of the clearings had driven fear through homeless communities even though the moves may not have displaced huge numbers of people. The district does not have large encampments similar to ones in other big cities. Homelessness was a vexing problem for the district well before Mr. Trump's crackdown. Mayor Muriel Bowser made the issue a focus of her administration when she took office in 2015, vowing to end long-term homelessness in the district and make it a 'rare, brief and nonrecurring experience' by 2020. Advocates say those goals are far from being met and that the district's latest budget for 2026 will undermine the social safety net for the neediest. While city data shows that the number of homeless people in the city dropped by 9 percent over the past year, it had been rising for two years before that. The city acknowledges that more work needs to be done but points to the decrease over the past year as evidence of progress. It says it has expanded its shelter system and that one of its programs has diverted nearly 400 people from entering homelessness. Still, the sudden disruption of the past week has left city workers and volunteers scrambling to assemble a patchwork safety net. Claire Wilson, the executive director of Georgetown Ministry Center, said that close to a dozen of the more than 60 individuals her organization sees on a regular basis were displaced on Friday. It was done without warning, she said, which was out of the norm. Ms. Wilson added that on Saturday morning, more than 50 people came to the center for shelter — a much larger crowd than what the ministry typically sees on a Saturday. 'Yesterday was frantic — and traumatic,' said Ms. Wilson, talking about Friday. She added that it was unlike any other crisis she had seen homeless individuals face in about a decade of working on housing issues. On Friday night, as federal and local law enforcement patrolled the streets of Washington, advocates for the homeless were roaming transit hubs in Montgomery County, Md., wealthy suburbs that border of Washington, searching for unhoused people who had left the city. John Mendez, Bethesda Cares's executive director, and Renee Siepierski, the group's street outreach program director, drove to Chevy Chase, a wealthy enclave on the northwest border of Washington. They pulled on bright orange wind breakers and walked the hollow concrete transit hubs in the area, tucked away behind luxury retail stores and bars. Mr. Mendez anticipated that some of Washington's homeless would seek refuge by blending in at libraries and coffee shops during the day and on public transit at night. But they were unlikely to permanently leave the city they called home, Mr. Mendez said. He counted four people who appeared to be homeless, which he said was a higher than usual number. They were laden with bags of belongings. Some of them took a pair of new socks he offered them. They all climbed onto a bus back to Washington that pulled away just before midnight. In Bethesda, Md., Erica Jones got off a bus from the city. She said she did not have a place to live but relied on the generosity of friends and family. On Friday night, she was heading to her mother's apartment in Silver Spring, Md. Ms. Jones said her friends and acquaintances, who are homeless, were intimidated by the number of law enforcement in the streets. And she was alarmed by the way people are being treated. 'These are people like me and people like you,' she said, adding later, 'That's just where they sleep.'
Fox News
11 minutes ago
- Fox News
Politicians want you to pay for ‘cashless bail.' It's dangerous and expensive
Print Close By Michelle Esquenazi Published August 18, 2025 "Cashless bail" is one of the most misleading phrases in modern politics. Reform advocates coined it, the media amplified it, and it stuck. The reality? What we provide is secured bail — a constitutionally protected, privately funded system that ensures defendants appear in court and protects the public, all without costing taxpayers a dime. Ironically, the term "cashless" could make us sound like the good guys. We accept all forms of payment. We take the financial risk. We are legally liable for producing defendants in court. We operate 24/7 — making payroll, paying taxes, freeing the accused in an accountable way, and, when necessary, tracking fugitives so victims are protected and prosecutions move forward. Courts and judges who still have secured bail know it works, because we have skin in the game. The New Jersey Example In 2016, New Jersey passed the Bail Reform Act, removing the accused's right to bail and replacing private secured bail with a taxpayer-funded pretrial release bureaucracy. Here's what happened: CINCINNATI ASSAULT: POLICE CHIEFS RIP LEADERS OVER BAIL LAWS, 'GAPS IN THE JUDICIAL PROCESS' No right to bail – defendants can now be held without release until trial. Taxpayer burden – counties spend millions annually to operate pretrial programs once handled at no cost by the private sector. Accountability removed – bondsmen, motivated to ensure court appearances, have been pushed out. The results were predictable. Ed Forchion, a Marine veteran and self-described "peaceful political pothead," was held for 447 days on a witness tampering charge tied to a Facebook post — not a violent crime — without the possibility of bail. I offered the prosecutor a $2 million secured bond to secure his release. They couldn't take it. Why? Because New Jersey no longer recognizes the right to bail. TRUMP DEMANDS END TO CASHLESS BAIL, SAYS 'COMPLETE DISASTER' DRIVING CRIME IN CITIES, ENDANGERING POLICE The costs are staggering. In 2016, the New Jersey Association of Counties sued the state because there was no funding in county budgets for this massive new mandate. Today, residents continue to pay millions each year for a system that is less accountable and less effective than what it replaced. Where It's Headed Tennessee is now on track to follow New Jersey's path and other states are considering similar changes. Once the suggested right to bail is stripped away, it's nearly impossible to restore. The shift is always the same: from private accountability to public expense, from a proven, self-funded system to a costly government program. CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION The "Cashless" Myth Every politician who has signed onto "bail reform" gets paid whether they work or not. They don't understand what we do because they're chasing a funded narrative. If tomorrow's narrative was "funeral home reform," they'd be after multi-generation, family-owned funeral homes with the same zeal. MURDER VICTIM'S MOTHER SOUNDS OFF ON GOV. PRITZKER'S NO-CASH BAIL: 'THIS IS WHAT HE WANTED' The truth is simple: "cashless bail" isn't about making the system fairer. It's about replacing private industry with government bureaucracy — funded by you, the taxpayer. A Better Way Forward President Donald Trump demonstrated leadership on post-conviction reform. Now is the time to address pretrial justice reform. The Eighth Amendment suggests that the accused have the right to bail, and it's time to defend it nationally. The costs are staggering. In 2016, the New Jersey Association of Counties sued the state because there was no funding in county budgets for this massive new mandate. A balanced approach is possible — one that maintains judicial discretion, protects public safety, and ensures defendants appear in court without shifting the financial burden to taxpayers. Secured bail achieves all of this. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Congress should act now to protect the bail before more states follow New Jersey's failed example. Without action, the cost to taxpayers will climb, accountability will drop, and victims will be left waiting for justice. We in the private bail industry are ready to work with leaders who understand the vital role of private enterprise in the criminal justice system. We are, as I like to say, the "Coal Miners of Criminal Justice" — doing the hard, unglamorous work that keeps the system running, even when the lights are off. Print Close URL
