President Donald Trump has deployed FBI brokers to purportedly combat lethal crime in Washington, D.C. however crime is at a 30-year low within the metropolis. The FBI will likely be reassigning 120 brokers to go on night time patrols in Washington—a metropolis of 68 sq. miles and simply over 700,000 residents. These brokers will likely be pulled from their different duties to serve on Trump’s pet challenge.
Trump’s justification for the transfer is that crime within the metropolis is supposedly uncontrolled. In a MondayTruth Social publish he wrote, “Washington, D.C. will likely be LIBERATED at present! Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum will DISAPPEAR. I’ll, MAKE OUR CAPITAL GREAT AGAIN! The times of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, harmless folks, are OVER!”
He additionally demanded that homeless folks depart D.C.
Crime is down in D.C. Because the FBI itself defined in a January assertion, crime ranges within the metropolis are at 30-year lows—a drop that occurred underneath former President Joe Biden.
“Complete violent crime for 2024 within the District of Columbia is down 35% from 2023 and is the bottom it has been in over 30 years, in keeping with information collected by the Metropolitan Police Division,” the company stated on the time.
In distinction to Trump’s rhetoric, since Trump despatched in brokers they’re coping with way more mundane affairs. NPR reported that on Sunday night time, not less than two dozen brokers have been on the scene responding to a minor site visitors accident between a automotive and a moped. That’s hardly one thing that wants greater than a response from native police—D.C. has a police power of greater than 3,000 officers.
Washington Publish author Drew Harwell famous the absurdity of Trump’s actions, posting a video wherein armed federal brokers walked by means of a tranquil D.C. as joggers ran previous them.
Along with the FBI belongings, Trump stated on Monday that he had declared an emergency in D.C. and can be sending in Nationwide Guard troops to make the capital into one of many “most secure, cleanest and most lovely cities wherever on the planet.” Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth stated the Nationwide Guard would quickly be patrolling the streets—a improvement that right-wing conspiracy theorists have accused Democrats of plotting to hold out for many years.
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser questioned the effectiveness of such a transfer. “I simply assume that’s not probably the most environment friendly use of our Guard,” she stated Sunday on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” acknowledging it’s “the president’s name about the way to deploy the Guard.”
Trump and his allies at conservative media retailers like Fox Information are hyping up a purported crime disaster in D.C.—the place many of the inhabitants is Black—whereas his administration faces a number of failures and scandals.
The economic system is faltering, rocked by Trump’s determination to impose huge tariffs on international imports. Latest unemployment stories present that Trump’s tariffs are inflicting a rise in joblessness, and he has responded by pushing nonsensical conspiracy theories concerning the authorities information being manipulated.
Concurrently, his administration has been criticized by each the fitting and left for refusing to launch the federal government’s info on Trump pal and convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein and his intercourse trafficking community.
Below Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi the FBI is patrolling the streets of Washington as an alternative of exposing Epstein’s purported consumer record and different affiliated paperwork. Trump has sued The Wall Avenue Journal for reporting that his identify purportedly got here up in an FBI sweep of Epstein-related recordsdata. Trump would moderately the main target be on his supposed robust strategy to crime than the economic system or pedophile-related scandals.
However his presidency has proven a keenness for criminals. He pardoned lots of of individuals concerned within the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol and a few of them have already returned to a lifetime of crime. Concurrently, his determination to make use of ICE to harass and kidnap migrants has given a inexperienced mild to criminals across the nation to impersonate ICE as a pretext to committing crimes.
And naturally, Trump himself is a convicted felon on 34 counts, which means that one of the well-known criminals in Washington is the one purportedly declaring conflict on crime.
