Recommendations of the Editorial team
US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he will present the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington DC under federal supervision the national guard in the city. He emphasized that this measure was necessary “to save our capital from crime, bloodshed, chaos, misery and worse.” He described this as a “day of liberation” for DC
Objection to official crime statistics
“The number of car theft has doubled in the past five years. The number of carjackings more than tripled,” said Trump on Monday. In contradiction to figures from the US prosecutor who were published at the beginning of the year and showed a declining trend of these offenses. Car thefts were constant in the year. Armed carjackings decreased by 53 percent.
In January, the Ministry of Justice had emphasized that violent crime in Washington DC was “at the lowest level in over 30 years”.
“I hereby officially call on section 740 of the Home Rule Act of the District of Columbia,” said Trump on Monday. This section allows the President to take control of the police for 48 hours each in an emergency. “I put the Metropolitan Police Department of DC under direct federal supervision.” The decision to use the National Guard emerged from a presidential memo that was signed in the morning.
Trump indicated that the police were encouraged to encourage the changes by the changes. “They love to spit on the police while the police are standing in uniform,” he apparently said in relation to demonstrators. “The police are there. And they are told: ‘Under no circumstances do anything.’ And you want to get started.
Relation to protests and expansion to other cities
The best known recent example of attacks on security forces in Washington DC is probably January 6, 2021, as a supporter of President Trump, rioted in front of the Capitol. 140 police officers were injured, one of them, Brian Sicknick, died later. However, Trump focused on violence by minors and the dissolution of homeless camps in the city.
On Monday, Trump indicated that he could possibly also use the national guard in other cities- as in June in Los Angeles after protests against raids from the immigration and customs authority ICE. He called Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore and Oakland.
“We also have other cities that are bad,” said Trump. “We won’t allow that. And we won’t lose our cities because of this. And that will go on. We start very strongly with DC, and we will clean it very quickly, very quickly.”
Trigger: Attack on ex-Doge employee “Big Balls”
Trump’s announcement that the Federal Government takes control of the DC police was accompanied by an incident in which Edward Coristine, a former Doge employee with the online alias “Big Balls”, was the victim of attempted carjacking. Coristine, who is still working for the social security authority, was injured.
Trump said on Monday that Coristine was “bloodless. He thought he was dead – with a broken nose and a concussion”.
His announcement fell on the same morning, where a judge rejected an application from the Ministry of Justice, to release the statements of the Grand jury in the Jeffrey Epstein case. The struck president, meanwhile, tries to contain the continued consequences of the decision of the Ministry of Justice from the past month, no further information in the Epstein case.
Many in social media described the step in DC as a distraction from the case. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Ministry of Justice informed Trump in May that his name would be mentioned several times in the Epstein files. However, Trump was not accused of misconduct.