American demonstrators say that Trump uses “the urgency of crime” to justify DC’s takeover | Donald Trump News

Washington, DC – The news was met with tunes.

US President Donald Trump invoked a “crime emergency” in the American capital on Monday, allowing his justice ministry for justice control From Washington, the local police of DC. He simultaneously announced that the Pentagon would deploy the US National Guard forces in the city of more than 700,000.

Gathered with a few pâtés of houses, with the White House looming in the background, demonstrators broke out in a choir of “huae”.

The Pentagon later said that 800 soldiers were activated on Monday, 100-200 of them supporting the police.

Trump’s latest decision, said Keya Chatterjee, the Executive Director of Free DC, was not just another salvo against the long marginalized rights of city residents, but a “major escalation”.

“It goes beyond the kind of words that people have used, as” unprecedented and “unusual”, “said Chatterjee, whose group recommends the self-determination of DC.

“It is only authoritarianism,” she told Al Jazeera, on the songs of the crowd.

‘Represent ourselves’

The rights of hundreds of thousands of residents of Washington, DC have been the subject of debates since its creation by Congress in 1790 with land from Maryland and Virginia.

The district continues to fall under the direct auspices of the federal government, never having obtained from the state. However, it maintains a level of local autonomy according to the 1973 Home Rule Act, which allows residents to elect certain local officials. The congress still examines all the laws adopted by these elected officials and approves the district budget.

The city’s superlative as the first city of the black majority in the United States, and its current status as a city of black plurality, added a racial dynamic to the fact that defenders have long dismissed as the systematic priority of its residents.

The leader in civil rights, the Reverend Al Sharpton, described the decision “the ultimate affront to justice and civil rights”, in a statement.

“Donald Trump was inspired to withdraw this disgusting, dangerous and derogatory action only out of interest,” Sharpton said in a statement. “Let us call inspiration for this assault on a majority black city for what it is: another attempt to distract its angry and frustrated base on the treatment of its administration of the Epstein files. “”

In March, the mayor of DC Muriel Bowser agreed to rename the Black Lives Matter Plaza Near the White House, where Monday’s demonstration was organized, in the midst of Trump pressure and concerns that federal funding could be retained.

Bowser said on Monday that the deployment of the National Guard was “disturbing”, but not unprecedented.

“My message to the residents is as follows,” said Bowser. “We know that access to our democracy is tenuous. This is why you heard me, I and many Washingtonians, before I plead for full state. ”

For many people gathered on Monday, Trump’s decision again pointed out the little power they had by directly influencing local police policies that directly supervise their community.

Amari Jack, a 20 -year -old student, described what he considered to be “the first step” in a broader consolidation of power over the city, noting that Trump has for years the idea of taking more control of the metropolis surrounding the White House. Such a decision probably requires The congress overturns the law on the interior rule.

“I came out today because I was really afraid of the potential that DC could lose all autonomy that he has,” Jack told Al Jazeera.

“I feel as a native of DC, born and raised, we must be able to represent and enrich our communities. We cannot just bring a president and reign over our house. ”

The crime as a pretext?

For his part, in an order declaring “the emergency”, Trump denounced what he called “the non-compliance with the government of the city to maintain public order and security”, affirming that the crime rates posed “intolerable risks for the vital federal functions which take place in the District of Columbia”.

Addressing the White House journalists, Trump promised to “resume our capital”, describing what he described as “massive application operations targeting known gangs, drug traffickers and criminal networks to get the street out”.

Trump also said that he “got rid of the slums” and that the city’s homeless people did not know more details on his plans.

Among those who repel the characterization, there was the Attorney General of the District of Columbia, Brian Schwalb, who called the “unprecedented, useless and illegal” move.

“There is no urgency of crime in the Columbia district,” he said.

Although DC crime rates are generally higher than the national average, violent crimes have dropped considerably in recent years, which has dropped from 35% from 2023 to 2024 and 26% additional this year compared to the same period last year, according to metropolitan police.

At the start of this year, the Ministry of Justice announcement This violent crime at DC had reached a 30 -year -old hollow.

Groups like the Center for American Progress attributed The decline in the two local laws on the law enforcement, as well as “investment in crime prevention and resources such as housing and education and support for employment”.

Radha Tanner, twenty years old, as many have met, saw Trump as using the pretext of the crime to adopt a broader political mission, that which depicts cities dominated by Democrats as “dangerous and shown in crime”.

More than 90% of DC voters supported Trump’s democratic opponent Kamala Harris in the 2024 elections. Trump, in turn, won about 6.5% of the votes.

Tanner saw Monday movements as in accordance with deployment of the National Guard and the Marines in Los Angeles, California, to help the repression of immigration and the demonstrations they have stimulated.

“He does this to make an example of a city full of democrats who is vulnerable because we have no representation,” said Tanner.

‘Best place to resist us’

Maurice Carney, 60, has seen a similar objective in Trump’s actions, arguing that long -term investment, and not a short -term requisition of local police or the deployment of the National Guard, would actually show a real commitment to fight crime.

“When you see this increase in militarization, whether in DC or on the African continent or elsewhere in the world, you always see an increase in violence, either of the resistance, or of the creation of an unstable environment,” said Carney, who works with a group based in DC who defends the citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Like it or not, DC is considered the capital of the Empire, the capital of the world,” Carney told Al Jazeera. “So, if Trump wants to show that he is this guy” Law and Order “, DC is the best place for him to do this.”

“It is also the best place to resist us,” he said, “for us to get up and let the rest of the world know that even at the heart of the Empire, the people – local residents of DC – resisted.”