2 days ago
Letters: Any illusion that DC residents have the same rights as others has been shattered
As a proud Chicagoan for almost 47 years, I admit I took political representation for granted. I could engage in vigorous discussions and vote for the senators and congresswomen-and-men who shared my beliefs.
Now, however, I live in our nation's capital and no longer have voting representation in Congress. In fact, D.C. residents could not even vote for the president until 1964.
I love D.C. and have immersed myself in making the city even better after being elected as a volunteer advisory neighborhood commissioner, representing approximately 2,000 of my neighbors to D.C.'s government. I told myself that D.C. enjoyed microlevel democracy at its best, despite the fact that laws passed by the Council of District of Columbia can be overturned at the whim of an antagonistic U.S. Congress, that serious crimes are pursued by a presidentially selected U.S. Attorney rather than by a locally elected D.C. attorney general, and that the judges who hear these cases also are presidential appointees rather than being elected with local accountability.
However, last week, any illusions of being a U.S. citizen with the same rights as others was shattered. Based on the lie that crime in D.C. represented a pressing federal emergency, despite declining by 26% this year and reaching a 30-year low, President Donald Trump considered federalizing the D.C. police and called out the National Guard (The only guard not under the jurisdiction of a local governor.)
D.C. achieved this progress in tamping down violent crime, despite having locally sourced (not federally funded) FY 25 budget funds frozen, without cause, by Congress, despite numerous judicial vacancies awaiting federal appointment, and despite curtailment of federal funding for effective violence interruption, re-entry and other crime reduction programs.
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Since I have no voting representatives in Congress, I ask those of you in other states to reach out to your representatives and ask them to support the home rule and voting rights of D.C.'s citizens. Make no mistake, the federal police state mentality that has been imposed in D.C. will not stop with D.C. Unless we push back, it will expand and squash many of the constitutionally granted rights reserved for we the crime has dropped dramatically over the past few decades, with only brief spikes from events like the pandemic. This secular trend is welcome, but its causes remain debated. What's clear is that it has nothing to do with the increasingly cruel and chaotic immigration policies being proposed and implemented by Trump.
His campaign promised mass deportations, yet data shows that only 7% of those targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been convicted of violent crimes — and 65% have no criminal record at all. It's also well established that immigrants, especially undocumented ones, commit fewer crimes than native-born citizens.
Despite this, Trump continues to describe major cities — especially Democratic ones like Washington, D.C. — as crime-ridden hellholes only he can rescue. In reality, violent crime is falling there too, as CNN's recent fact check of his illegal takeover attempt of D.C. law enforcement confirmed. Even his own FBI director admitted the steep drop in violent crime.
We must anticipate the narrative he's building: that any drop in crime is thanks to his harsh immigration stance. He's done this before — taking credit for stock market gains that preceded his presidency. If we don't challenge the false narrative about immigrant crime now, people may believe that abusing immigrants somehow made America safer. It didn't. And it won' federal police agencies are in the nation's capital to repel violent crime, the subject of homelessness has come to the fore.
Not long ago, tent cities were largely associated with impoverished third-world nations and no American city would allow tents on sidewalks or parks without a permit. These new shantytowns are plagued with substance abuse, violence and prostitution. Streets have become littered with rotting garbage, human waste, discarded needles and rats, and have become breeding grounds for infectious diseases. As the most prosperous nation on earth, we have an obligation to provide shelter to anyone in need. Government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and charities should be tasked with providing inexpensive open-bay shelter to anyone in need. Anyone truly in need would be grateful for such an arrangement.
Public intoxication must be grounds for arrest. We will save lives of those whose cycle of dependency has been perpetuated in these dystopian settings. The status quo does not represent any sense of compassion and is a stain on happened, I agree with Trump. He has declared America's largest cities to be ravaged with crime. He uses a less delicate, scatologic term when describing them. People whom I tell I lived in Chicago until permanently retiring to Florida in my 80s, no longer comment about my good fortune escaping the cold weather or crooked politicians. It's now all about escaping violent crime.
Back in the 1960s, when I was a member of the National Guard in Illinois and later Washington, D.C., my units were activated after neighborhoods erupted in violence. I believed the new normal would be civil unrest and my unit and others would be routinely activated. Eventually things calmed down and to my knowledge the National Guard has largely been domestically used during weather events such as hurricanes and floods.
Although large-scale riots are now a rarity, warm weather and those enjoying the beaches, parks and festivities of summer and just the warmer weather are at risk of well-armed criminals robbing businesses and assaulting those out for a nice evening.
Inclement winter months tamp down and inhibit much local violence.
I see nothing wrong and everything good about National Guard units being deployed to areas where citizens and visitors desire but fear to be.
Saturating unsafe areas with cruisers and vans containing members of the National Guard and deploying unarmed members with radio devices to stroll through popular well visited areas is likely a good deterrent against violence. That's why police vehicles and officers patrol.
Very little creates more comfort for citizens and discomfort for criminals than the threat of lawbreakers getting caught.I would prefer that the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board not presume to tell me what God does and does not do. The editorial of August 12, 'God does not gerrymander' was offensive. That the board does not gerrymander is fine with me. But to take issue with the Rev. Michael Pfleger and the congregation of St. Sabina, a man and a people who have put their lives on the line time and time again to defend democracy as it exists in their neighborhood and their beliefs, is beyond arrogance.
'Politics is about power.' So, it would appear, are newspaper editors. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
