This post was originally published on The Washington Informer
By Sam P.K. Collins and Stacy M. Brown
Federal infringement on local affairs reached what some would describe as astronomical levels over the past several days.
More than a dozen federal law enforcement agencies encroached on District neighborhoods; a federal prosecutor demanded the reversal of legislation that has secured the early release of those sentenced to prison as youth; and on Monday, President Donald Trump announced he is seizing control of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Although Trump explained his “formally declaring a public safety emergency” was about combating crime in D.C., data from his own Justice Department reveals a different story. In 2024, the violent crime rate in the nation’s capital fell 35% from the year before, hitting a 30-year low.
He said that his announcement marked “Liberation Day for D.C.,” vowing to “wipe out crime, savagery, filth and scum” in the capital.
However, homicides dropped 32%; robberies, 39%; armed carjackings, 53%; and assaults with a dangerous weapon, 27%. Even now, D.C. police report violent crime is down another 26% from last year.
While D.C. residents like Dee Dwyer acknowledge that some young people are running amok in the streets, she sees the situation less as an issue of law enforcement and parental upbringing and more of an indication that District youth lack the confidence that they — like the droves of transplants pouring into the city — can thrive under rapid gentrification.
“Everybody is blaming the parents [but] it was the environment, and it was also a scarcity of resources, of knowledge,” said Dwyer, an educator and prolific photographer who hails from Southeast. “And then also taking these kids outside of their communities and showing them the world.”
Amid the president’s criticism of a city he says is filthy, full of slums and homelessness, graffiti, and crime-ridden, on Saturday, Dwyer hosted the Chocolate City Experience at the old AutoZone on H Street NE — an hours-long event that brought together various elements of indigenous D.C. culture.
Featuring double-dutch, spades, checkers, and a go-go photo booth run by Mr. G, a locally renowned cameraman known for his iconic photos, Dwyer told The Informer that this event — coordinated in conjunction with H Street Main Street — builds upon her thought-provoking 2019 photo exhibit titled “The Last Bite of Chocolate City?”
She also shouted out her former students at the now-shuttered Democracy Prep Congress Heights Public Charter School as a source of inspiration, due mostly to what she described as their inability to have the quintessential D.C. childhood.
“They didn’t really have any playgrounds that [were] usable…and then they also expressed to me that [there’s] a lot of crime in their community,” Dwyer told The Informer as she recounted past efforts to have her students go on playground swings. “I wanted to add this art activation where I’m recreating a beautiful day in a Chocolate City neighborhood and just bring joy to the community, create a safe space, and have activities that I used to do.”
Joy and Sorrow Co-Exist Amid Federal Law Enforcement of D.C. Streets
In the aftermath of an alleged attack and attempted carjacking of Edward Coristine, a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) official known as “Big Balls,” Trump expressed a desire to federalize youth offenses and increase federal law enforcement presence in the District.
Later, in a bevy of posts made on Truth Social, Trump, once again, alluded to a takeover of D.C., going as far as demanding the removal of the homeless population.
These proclamations set the stage for the president’s Monday announcement.
Standing at the podium in the White House press briefing room, Trump, flanked by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, and U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro, among other administration officials, revealed his plans to dispatch hundreds of National Guard troops to the District and evoke Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act that brings MPD under federal control.
Trump said Terry Cole, administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, will serve as the interim federal commissioner of MPD, under the guidance of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“This city will no longer be a sanctuary for illegal alien criminals. We will have full, seamless, integrated cooperation at all levels of law enforcement. And we’ll deploy officers across the District with an overwhelming presence. You’ll have more police, and you’ll be so happy because you’ll be safe,” Trump said. “When you walk down the street, you’re going to see police, or you’re going to see FBI agents. We’re going to have a lot of agents on the street. You’re going to have a lot of, essentially, military, we will bring in the military if needed.”
MPD didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Despite Trump’s claims that the District is becoming more unsafe, this year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia announced that violent crime is the lowest it has been in three decades. Year-to-date data compiled by MPD on Monday shows a 28% overall decrease in violent crime, which includes assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, sex abuse, and homicides.
During her Sunday morning appearance on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” Bowser refuted claims that crime in the District was out of control. She, however, stopped short of decrying Trump’s use of federal forces to support the local public safety ecosystem.
“The president is very aware of our efforts,” Bowser told Eugene Daniels and Jonathan Capehart. “He established a task force, which our police department and agencies support with information and anything else they ask us for … it is always the president’s prerogative to use federal law enforcement or the National Guard.”
Since last week, District residents have spotted U.S. Park Police and the FBI, along with other federal agencies, throughout the District, including near Georgia Avenue in Northwest, Eastern Avenue and Rhode Island Avenue in Northeast, and Martin Luther King Avenue in Southeast.
Local organizers have also taken to social media, alerting followers to federal law enforcement sightings and providing safety tips. On Saturday night, at least one elected official — Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Anthony Lorenzo Green — reported what he called violent encounters sparked by MPD, the Metro Transit Police Department, FBI, DEA, and ICE.
Hours before Green’s post, the Free DC movement and Harriet’s Wildest Dreams conducted a teach-in at the old AutoZone on H Street NE that preceded the Chocolate City Experience event.
For an hour on Saturday, organizers delved into the history of the statehood movement, noting D.C. Mayor for Life Marion S. Barry, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Anise Jenkins of Stand Up! For Democracy in DC as key figures of the movement.
They also drew parallels between the current state of affairs and the Reconstruction Era, a period of white backlash against Black political advancement.
In her presentation, Samantha Davis, founder of Black Swan Academy and a member of the Free DC movement, advised against falling victim to “divide and conquer” tactics that the Trump administration would use. She later told The Informer that, since Trump’s return to the Oval Office, she and her comrades have prioritized joy, unity, and disruption of the status quo in their organizing work.
Also central to their ethos, Davis said, was an insistence that District officials not “obey in advance” — especially when it comes to how they address problems concerning the city’s youngest residents.
On Monday, as Trump announced the federal takeover of MPD, hundreds of people converged on 16th Street NW, feet from the White House, in opposition to his recent efforts.
“We also know Trump has said some things around prosecuting 14-year-olds as adults. [They] are children, they are not adults,” Davis told The Informer. “We’re continuing to wrap our young people around with love and support and resources, and that we’re making a really clear signal to Trump that we don’t need our young people to be criminalized. We don’t need our communities to be policed, and for young people to hear loudly that we love them, that we care for them.”
Jeanine Pirro Targets D.C. Council
For weeks, as District officials tackled mass gatherings of youth in commercial districts with an emergency curfew, Trump administration officials have set their sights on a group over which they have no prosecutorial jurisdiction. On Aug. 6, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro sent a letter to members of the D.C. Council asking that they “reconsider” the Second Chance Amendment Act, the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act, and the Youth Rehabilitation Amendment Act.
During the Monday “Liberation Day for D.C.” press conference, Pirro called her requests a matter of extinguishing what she, and Trump, described as liberal ideology that absolves young people — and others, for that matter — of accountability.
“I can’t touch you if you’re 14, 15, 16, 17 years old, and you have a gun,” Pirro said. “I convict someone of shooting another person with an illegal gun on a public bus in the chest, intent to kill? I convict him. And you know what the judge gives him? Probation. Says you should go to college. We need to go after the D.C. Council and their absurd laws.”
The Youth Rehabilitation Amendment Act, passed in 2018, includes provisions that guide the courts in their decision to determine whether a youth’s conviction should be set aside after the completion of probation, supervised release, or parole.
The Second Chance Amendment Act, which went into effect during the spring of 2021, allows for the sealing and expungement of certain criminal records, while also expanding the age of eligibility for the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act — 2016 legislation that allows for resentencing review after 15 years of prison time — from 18 to 25 years old.
The Informer unsuccessfully attempted to gather comment from D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), chair of the council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, through which a reconsideration of the three bills would most likely take place.
D.C. Councilmember Wendell Felder (D-Ward 7) also declined comment, opting only to weigh in on the importance of government-funded resources for District youth.
“Making sure that our young folks have productive alternatives so they do not have to dabble in mischievous things that will get them in trouble is very important to me,” Felder said. “I know that the council implemented a curfew … so that was a step in the right direction. Also, we noticed that the Department of Parks and Recreation has been implementing things like Late Night Hype to give our young folks alternative things to do to keep them out of trouble.”
Trayon White Weighs In on Federal Takeover
On Friday, Felder swore D.C. Councilmember Trayon White (D-Ward 8) back into officeat a ceremony at R.I.S.E. Demonstration Center in Congress Heights that attracted several dozens of residents, civic leaders, and at least one former elected official — Brandon Todd. In his remarks, White alluded to Trump’s thirst for penalizing youth, saying that it reminded him of hurdles that he and his peers navigated during their youth.
On Friday, while weighing in on Pirro’s letter, White evoked his cousin, who served a decade in prison for a social media post, telling The Informer that returning citizens should not only be given a chance to rectify mistakes of the past, but the tools to do so.
“If you already went to jail for whatever offense it is, you should come back and live a normal life like a regular citizen,” White told The Informer. “What I’m finding is too many people come back home having a hard time, one, finding a job, finding a place to live. If you’re just trying to be a man or woman in our community again, especially those who have children, I think we have to over-resource those who are returning citizens to ensure they can come home.”
As he did two years ago, in the aftermath of a shooting that killed Tymea Cook, Bernard Hodges, and Reginald Gilbert, White mulled the possibility of a National Guard presence in the District. On Sunday, he took to Instagram, where he again embraced the idea, “as long as citizens’ rights are not violated and we get the other services.”
“It’s not popular, but I hear from our senior citizens and they are afraid,” White said on his Sunday morning Instagram post. “I am not against additional support led by D.C. (not a takeover) in the community, especially when AK-47s and 30-40 pounds are prevalent at these crime scenes and MPD numbers are low. This should also include more after-school programs, housing support, career placement, violence interrupters, substance abuse services, and more because we can’t arrest our way out of the problem.”
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