Washington — Washington (AFP) – cherry blossoms It attracts more than a million visitors to Washington’s Tidal Basin annually. This year was no different, except that some of the people walking around the area between the Lincoln Memorial and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial were wearing camouflage clothing and armed.
Eight months after President Donald Trump’s announcement A crime emergency in the nation’s capital After the National Guard was called in, more than 2,500 soldiers remained, in a deployment that has become increasingly routine, with no clear end in sight.
Deployments to other cities have ended or stopped It has been temporarily blocked by courts in California and IllinoisWhile more limited operations are underway in cities including New Orleans. But in Washington, Guard members still walk city streets and patrol subway stations, tourist attractions, neighborhoods and parks.
Even as this year’s pivotal election approaches, that residual presence is rarely mentioned at City Council meetings or by the candidates vying for mayor and Congress — perhaps reflecting competing priorities and a sense that local officials have little power to stop it. Unless the courts intervene, at least the guard will remain End of yearif not longer.
“It’s the taxpayers Paying more than a million dollars a day “To get them walking around,” Phil Mendelsohn, president of the District of Columbia Council, said in an email response to questions.
“The presence of armed soldiers on American streets is not a good thing,” he said.
Republican Trump, He issued an executive order in August to deal with what he described as a crime emergency. The order brought in the Ranger along with hundreds of additional federal law enforcement officers.
Over the months, vigilante members responded to medical emergencies, assisted with arrests, assisted local police in enforcing a curfew on events in the city, and enforced… Beautification projects. The D.C. Guard helped remove snow during a major storm in January.
While Guard members do not make arrests, the Trump administration says their support of the broader mission has helped reduce crime. The White House said the task force has arrested 12,000 people since the start of operations, including 62 known gang members, and thousands of illegal firearms have been seized.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the president’s crime task force in the city “has achieved tremendous results for local communities.”
“Every local leader should want to emulate this success in their local areas,” Jackson said.
But officials disagree about how much credit can be given to Washington, a majority Democratic city, for deploying these forces. The figures show that crime was actually on the decline before, although these figures are now under investigation Claims arose against local police That they might have been manipulated.
Legal battle The deployment of guards is ongoing, and without a judge’s intervention, it can continue as long as the White House wants.
Asked how long the guardsmen would be deployed, Jackson said in an email that there were “no announcements to make.”
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s office, which is challenging the deployment of these weapons in court, declined to comment, citing pending litigation. The Pentagon’s National Guard Bureau did not respond to requests for comment.
mayor Muriel Bowserwho did not run for re-election He walked a fine line On the Guard deployment and broader federal involvement, he simultaneously appeared to be working with the president but also backing away from some of his demands, such as domestic cooperation on immigration enforcement.
The leading candidates to replace Bowser and the 18-term nonvoting city delegate in Congress, Eleanor Holmes Nortonfocused on affordability, state status, and trying to hold federal agencies accountable for their role in the surge.
The County Council, which includes at least four candidates for mayor or delegate, unanimously approved a measure to increase transparency in federal law enforcement operations. Although military deployment is occasionally mentioned on campaign websites and in advertisements, it is not currently a central issue in the campaign.
Other pressures on the city, including unemployment and loss of revenue associated with federal workforce cuts, have taken priority. The city’s primary election will be held June 16, along with a special election for an at-large seat on the City Council.
Some residents say frustration about the guard eased after two members of the West Virginia contingent joined They were ambushed Just blocks from the White House, killing Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and seriously wounding her colleague.
Kevin Cataldo, a neighborhood commissioner who joined the local D.C. police on a recent tour of his neighborhood, said he actually treated the vigilante members with kindness, making a point of recognizing them because they didn’t choose to be in the city. The shooting ambush deepened his sympathy for them. “That was terrible,” he said.
District Councilman Brian Nadeau said voters are still wondering why the guard remains, but complaints are far fewer than at the start of the deployment.
“It would be great if the federal government would use its money and resources to help the region with the things we need help with and not act like an invading army,” Nadeau said in an email.
Fellow council members and mayoral candidates Janez Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie have raised similar issues, including high costs.
There have been few recent public surveys on attitudes toward the presence of uniformed personnel in American cities.
Several groups are planning protests and other events on May 1 to oppose the federal surge, including the continued presence of the National Guard, said Kia Chatterjay, co-founder and executive director of Free DC, an advocacy group fighting for the city’s autonomy. Among the goals: “ending the military occupation of the capital before the June elections.”
Chatterjee said normalizing the Guard’s presence makes it easier to suppress dissent and “change the playing field” in elections.
Chatterjiay said the presence of weapons and military personnel could create an atmosphere of intimidation during elections. Citizens must get involved and “first, we have to help our neighbors feel safe when voting.”
Scott Michelman, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia, said the situation highlights the city’s limitations on self-government.
Washington is a federal district with limited autonomy where Congress retains the power to review the city’s laws and control its budget and where the president has direct control over the Metropolitan Guard and can authorize indefinite military deployments with little effective resistance from local authorities.
“We must have local control and local democratic accountability for the people who enforce our laws,” Michelman said. “DC is uniquely disempowered in our system in many ways.”