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The leaders of black civil rights and the mayors of several cities denounced Tuesday the deployment of the National Guard to the National Capital to fight crime, calling it “fundamentally grandiose” and “a federal coup”.
And by suggesting that other cities, also managed by black mayors, could be following, President Donald Trump “played the worst game of racial policy,” said a rights leader.
Trump announced on Monday that he Deploy 800 members of the guard In Washington, DC, suggesting that the same could happen in New York, Baltimore, Chicago and Oakland, California.
“When you walk on the street, you will see the police or you will see FBI agents,” Trump said about Washington on Monday. “And we will bring the army if necessary.”
Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, said that the president’s actions and words were racly polarizing, since crime rates in these cities are largely down.
“This is a distraction at a time when these cities deserve credit because crime and violence have broken down in most American cities at the moment, and this is trying to distract this success and, in fact, to create a de facto police state in these cities,” Morial told NBC News.
“He plays the worst game of racial division policy, and that’s it,” said Morial.
The Reverend Al Sharpton, the leader in civil rights and chief of the National Action Network, said in a press release That “the inhabitants of Washington, DC – in particular those who live in the street, who need the most care – will suffer, alongside the fundamental principles of our democracy”.
And the president of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson, questioned the declaration of emergency to DC, calling it as a “federal coup”.
The White House responded to criticism in a statement to NBC News: “There is nothing divisor to repress crime in the capital of our country to make it safer and more beautiful for all residents and visitors from around the world,” said the deputy secretary of the White House, Taylor Rogers. “Instead of criticizing the president’s legitimate actions to make DC again in security, cities managed by Democrats plagued by violent crimes should focus on cleaning their own streets. This is why Democrats continue to be so unpopular among daily Americans – they think that the President of the United States has repressed the crime in the capital of our country is a bad thing. “
Trump federally has the DC metropolitan police department during the weekend and qualified the national capital as “one of the most dangerous cities in the world”. He followed the Mortal shot from a convention trainee in July and the diversion From a former employee of the Government Ministry to DC last week, resulting in the arrest of two teenagers.
Even with these violent acts, crime at DC, has been decreasing for years and is currently in A 30 year old hollowAccording to the Ministry of Justice. Nationally, violent crimes have decreased, in particular murders, rape, serious assault and theft, according to data published last week by the FBI.
Black Americans are four times more likely to feel homeless in their lives than white Americans, according to A 2023 study Posted in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disapprities.
DC Police Union, Quoting staff shortages and “mismanagement”, said that it supported the federal takeover, but only in a limited temporary capacity which led to a better resource service.
The mayor of DC, Muriel Bowser, said that Trump’s decision, which he had been referring to for months, is “disturbing and unprecedented”. THE The administration forced the withdrawal Street painting Black Lives Matter which has been important in the city since 2020 by threatening to retain millions of funds if it remained.
Bowser said on Monday that the city’s police chief will maintain authority over police forces. But Trump said he had Appointed the administrator of the drug application agency, Terry ColeAs head of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Morial said that many national guards are his friends, “this is not an assignment for which they were trained. This is not an assignment for which they have registered. They are used as political pawns.
“What the White House should do is restore the cuts in instant and restore the Medicaid cuts, which will damage Washington, DC and other urban communities,” said Morial.
The mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott, was not happy that Trump mentioned his city as a potential place where the National Guard would be deployed.
“This is the president’s last effort to distract problems on which he should concentrate – including the roller coaster mountains from the American economy thanks to his policies,” said Scott in a statement on Monday. “Regarding public security in Baltimore, it should deactivate right propaganda and look at the facts.”
Homicides are down 28% In Baltimore this year only, reaching the lowest level of each year recorded, with global crime rates below 50 years. “We still have a real job to do to rely on this progress, but this work begins and ends here in Baltimore with the local, state and federal partners that brought us so far.”
And as Scott pointed out, “it’s not just Baltimore.” In ChicagoViolent crime is also broken down more than 30% and shots of almost 40%. Mayor Brandon Johnson said the spectacular discounts occurred even if Trump had cut “$ 158 million in funding for violence prevention programs In cities like Chicago ”, as well as Los Angeles, New York, DC and Baltimore.
These cuts, he said, are above the Trump administration Disturb the prevention office of armed violence And end hundreds of grants For anti-violence programs across the country.
“If President Trump wants to help make Chicago safer, he can start by freeing funds for Anti-violence programs This was essential to our work to reduce crime and violence, “said Johnson.” The sending of the National Guard would only be used to destabilize our city and undermine our public security efforts. »»
The mayor of Savannah, in Georgia, Van R. Johnson II, president of the African American Mayors Association, said that although he respects the federal government’s responsibility to guarantee national security, the deployment of the National Guard to DC “might not be the most productive approach, in particular when local leaders and the police are already making significant progress in the reduction of crime and community. “
Johnson has implored the Trump administration to work with mayors and “support solutions that strengthen law enforcement partnerships and community commitment”.
The Republicans supported Trump’s decision. Representative James Comer, from Kentucky, chairman of the chamber’s supervisory committee, said in a statement: “For years, the Soft-On-Crime DC Agenda Enhards of criminals and endangered public security in the capital of our country.”
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, from New York, the Democrat chief of the Chamber, did not vehemently agree, claiming that action will be a negative force against “the population of young people and the city’s homeless”.
