Guard deployment in Washington, D.C. 'desensitizing' to military presence

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1 of 5 | A National Guardsman and Humvee are seen outside of Union Station in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. President Donald Trump federalized the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department and called up 800 National Guardsman in response to his declaration of a public safety emergency. Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 18 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump's declaration of a crime emergency in Washington, D.C., has again placed military soldiers on the streets of an American city.
Despite data from local law enforcement showing a prolonged decline in the rates of violent crime, the president has invoked Section 740 of the Home Rule Act, a provision that allows Trump to commandeer control of the Metropolitan Police Department, declare a state of emergency and unleash federal resources on the district.
The move is unprecedented according to academics, historians and a former district official who spoke with UPI.
"The federal government has the power to dictate terms to the city," Chris Myers Asch, a visiting history professor at Colby College in Maine and author of Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation's Capital, told UPI. "In that sense, this is really about power. This is about power, not really about crime. President Trump is doing this in D.C. because he can. He's taking this sliver of authority and pushing it to its fullest extent."
Trump's orders
The president's executive order declaring an emergency in Washington says "crime is out of control," causing a threat to public safety and endangering public servants.
The impetus for the declaration stems, at least in part, from the alleged assault on a former employee of the Department of Government Efficiency. Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old referred to as "Big Balls," by a group of teenagers earlier in August.
Trump responded to reports of the assault with language repeated in his executive order.
"Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control," he said.
With the declaration, Trump has placed Attorney General Pam Bondi to oversee the Metropolitan Police Department for up to 30 days.
Bondi is to monitor the emergency conditions and keep the president updated. She will also have the responsibility of recommending whether this federal intervention continues for the full 30 days or if emergency measures are no longer needed.
David Super, professor of law at Georgetown University Law School, told UPI the president's authority to declare such an emergency and exercise executive power in this way is fairly broad.
"Technically, the law allows the president to demand the Metropolitan Police Department's 'services' to meet federal needs," Super said.
On Thursday, Bondi delivered orders to Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Metropolitan Police Department, appointing Terrence C. Cole, Justice Department Drug Enforcement Administrator, as the city's emergency police commissioner. Bondi also called for an end to so-called sanctuary city policies, which she attributed in part to increasing the dangers "posed by violent crime."
Following this directive, Washington, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith issued an executive order to direct officers to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enforce Trump's deportation policies.
During a press conference announcing the takeover of the police department on Monday, Trump added that he is deploying the National Guard to "restore order and public safety."
"They're going to be allowed to do their job properly," Trump said.
The National Guard took to the streets, sweeping homeless encampments and making itself visible to residents in the city. Other federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Drug Enforcement Administration have also been on patrol.
The increased visibility of law enforcement and armed soldiers has drawn protests with demonstrators evoking the term "fascists."
Mary Cheh, law professor at George Washington University, was a D.C. council member for 16 years, representing Ward 3 until 2022. She told UPI that Trump's orders will require city officials to "fall in line."
"The local authorities will attempt to work cooperatively," she said. "When there's a federal decision, they'll just simply have to fall in line."
The National Guard increases the visibility of law enforcement but it does not dramatically change enforcement capabilities, according to Cheh.
The National Guard is not capable of carrying out investigations, making citations or processing an arrest. Those responsibilities remain with local law enforcement agencies.
"The National Guard can detain people but not arrest," she said. "The 4th Amendment still applies. Their main function, so it seems, is being present, being seen."
The Fourth Amendment protects people from being stopped and frisked without reasonable suspicion that they are armed and dangerous.
Local reaction
The local response from the public has not been as receptive to the federal takeover, based on discussions Cheh has had with fellow residents.
"There are attempts to organize protests," Cheh said. "That will actually feed into [Trump's] desire to militarize the district."
The bench trial over Trump's deployment of armed forces in Los Angeles, Newsom vs. Trump, began on Monday. In that case, Trump deployed soldiers in the name of immigration enforcement. The dynamics are different in the case of Washington due to the federal government having oversight over the district but the now repeated use of federal forces raises alarms, Cheh said.
"It's desensitizing us. 'Let's get used to the military patrolling our streets,'" she said. "How do you do that? You have them do that and you have them do that again. That's one of the large consequences here. He showed this in California. He's already said he's going to be thinking about other cities, bringing in the military."
"In D.C., people are very worried. They're worried about being intimidated by the presence of the military," Cheh added. "They're very worried that what will happen is something akin to what the local police did in New York. Stop and frisk without proper justification."
Barbara Zia and Anne Stauffer, Washington residents and co-presidents of the League of Women Voters of D.C., told UPI the presence of increased law enforcement varies based on neighborhood and time of the day.
The 5th Ward -- where there is a greater immigrant population -- east of the Anacostia River, Mount Pleasant and the busy nightlife district on 14th Street are among those that have seen the largest uptick in police presence.
"I have heard reports of ICE particularly in my neighborhood in Mount Pleasant," Stauffer said. "It's been very dependent on where you live in the district and what time you were out. They are moving towards a 24/7 presence."
"People are shocked," Zia said. "I don't think people were prepared for this."
A coalition of 126 civil rights organizations signed a letter to members of Congress, urging them to use their Constitutional authority to push back against the president's use of executive authority.
"In the place of proven strategies aimed at reducing and preventing crime, President Trump's decision to commandeer the police and fill the streets with National Guard servicemembers -- is not simply a matter of political theater and distraction," the letter reads.
"It also poses a dire threat to longstanding efforts to foster trust between the police and the communities they serve, especially in light of President Trump's claim that he would allow the police under his command to 'do whatever the hell they want,' raising concerns that the civil rights of D.C. residents may be sacrificed in the process."
Home Rule Act
The Home Rule Act was passed in 1973 to grant Washington a level of autonomy. It has allowed residents to elect mayors and council members but with congressional oversight.
Section 740 grants the president the ability to exert control over the Metropolitan Police Department for up to 30 days. Congressional approval is required to extend that control beyond 30 days.
Super said it is unclear what the president means to achieve during this federal takeover.
"The president has fairly broad authority to respond to unanticipated problems. Crime is hardly unanticipated," Super said. "Given that crime is declining in the district, it's hard to argue that it falls within the intent of the presidential authority to respond to things that are unanticipated."
"Certainly there's concern when you take power outside the legal mechanism in this case by making a finding that is clearly not truthful," he continued. "No one has identified something the Metropolitan Police aren't doing that they ought to be doing. There are arguments that they need more prosecutors and judges. More police doesn't fix that."
There are no firm mechanisms in place to check Trump's use of executive power in this instance, outside of legal intervention, according to Super.
"If he wants to do this once to score some political points and distract from the discussion of the Epstein files, he's going to get away with it," he said. "If this becomes a habit and going along with it turns out to not be the way of resolving the problem, you can certainly imagine a number of groups would challenge this as being contrary to the authorizing statute from Congress."
Cheh is not confident legal intervention would be effective.
"I don't see any immediate counter to what he is doing," she said. "There's nothing requiring him to specify or justify, but only to make an effective finding in his own mind about whether we have an emergency on our hands. That's one of the gaps in the law as it is. The framers here thought whoever was president would make a judgement that was consistent with what most of us would regard as an actual emergency."
Federal control and the role of race
Since the Home Rule Act was passed, no president has made a serious attempt to revoke this local control, though the government has intervened in local affairs on several occasions.
Asch told UPI that D.C. has often been a sort of "laboratory" for federal officials.
"D.C. is often a battleground for national policy," he said. "It's often a laboratory for federal officials to try out ideas that they might want to take nationwide."
Long before Home Rule, D.C. was at the center of the nation's reckoning over slavery. As a southern city, slavery played a prominent role in the local economy.
In the 1860s, Charles Sumner led a charge of abolitionists, considered radical Republicans at the time according to Asch, to make the city an example of equality for the rest of the country.
"He and the radical Republicans eliminated slavery in the city before the Emancipation Proclamation over the objections of local White residents who were the voting population at the time," Asch said. "Many local district leaders, White leaders, complained that the federal government was usurping their local authority."
The federal government used to control D.C. through unelected commissioners that were appointed by the president. This ended when Home Rule was passed.
"The fear of Black political power was a major reason why Congress stepped in in the 1870s to strip away the right to vote from all voters, Black and White, and turn the city basically into a creature of the federal government," Asch said. "For a century after Reconstruction, the fear of Black political power kept the government very much in charge of the city through three presidentially-appointed, unelected commissioners."
Race continues to play a role in the perception of the city. Presidents including Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush, as well as members of Congress cast doubt on local leaders, mayors and council members, many of whom were Black. They cast crime as being emblematic of the incompetence of these officials, Asch said.
"Race is inextricably intertwined with the city's history," he said. "You have the presence of a large, visible, very active Black community from the founding of the city that has been a major animating force," Asch said. "Particularly in terms of the relationship between the federal government and the local population."
Federal officers, National Guard patrol Washington
Residents keep with their normal routine and run past National Guard troops on the National Mall near the Washington Monument on August 12, 2025. Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo