Fixing DC
Sometimes a little show of force is all it takes.
The Left is screaming bloody murder about President Trump’s federal police surge, along with the National Guard into Washington, DC, claiming that it is unnecessary. They claim that crime is at the lowest level in 30 years. Well now with the surge, it’s now down another 30% from that, and your complaining?
According to several news sources, carjackings are down 83%. Is that a bad thing or a good thing? I’ll go with the latter. Of course, the part where, “Who is doing the carjacking,” never gets discussed. Let’s see…I don’t see any Irish Catholic nuns doing the carjackings. However, I do know about a couple of carjackings involving nuns. They were carjacked right in front of their convents, in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, DC. No, the carjackers were not Polish Catholic nuns either.
I travel from my house in College Park, MD, to DC pretty much on a daily basis. Most of the time when I go into DC, I take Metrobus and/or Metrorail. I ride public transportation regularly. Part of it is, I’ve always liked using public transportation. I just like riding buses, subways, streetcars, light rail, Amtrak and MARC rail, and the airlines. Yes, I consider flying, public transportation. I also hate driving.
The other part is being practical: I don’t see any point in driving, when the parking lot that I’m going to end up in, is a further walk to my destination, than the bus stop—and that walk just happens to be up hill too.
What I’m also seeing personally, is people seem a lot more relaxed. Conversations will start up on a bus, and three or four passengers will join the conversation. You didn’t see that a few weeks ago.
While there are still some unsavory characters at the Metro stations and bus bays, there seem to be less of them. Yes, there seems to be an enhanced police presence. I don’t find it intrusive. I’d say that that is a good thing. I’m sure there are also plain clothes officers around, too. The gentle show of force, seems to be working. I say gentle, because it’s about perception and presence. With the gentle show of force from the federal agencies and National Guard, most criminals will at least pretend they are not being criminals when the law is around, which is pretty much all the time. Those the don’t, join the stupid club, and get arrested.
The critics saying that the deployment of the National Guard primarily where the rich Whites live, or on the Mall, or in the tourist areas, is nothing but a Donald Trump show of force. You have your educated classes of Liberal Elites, Elites Adjacent, and Aspiring Elites, who don’t live anywhere near Anacostia, kvetching about why aren’t they in Anacostia where crime is still rampant. Of course, as soon as federal law enforcement and the Guard set up shop down there in South East, there would be myriad lawsuits to try to prevent them from doing any law enforcement.
Yes, they are a show of force but the show of force seems to be having an acceleration effect on the reduction of crime that is happening anyway. I spend a lot of time in Brookland. There are still a lot of street people in the Brookland neighborhood, along 12th Street NE. However, they now seem to be more polite.
It doesn’t make any difference if the crime rate is down, or it is going down, and/or it’s the lowest it’s ever been, it’s about perception. As long as people perceive that the crime rate is too high, it’s too high. There is also the perception, that not enough is being done about controlling the criminal element, that commits those crimes. People are sick and tired of excuses. The public wants law and order and a return to normalcy. It looks like it’s going to be one step at a time, starting with the nation’s capital, Washington, DC.
DC is unique in that it is a federal district, and not a territory or a state. It was formally established on July 16, 1790. It wasn’t until the 23rd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was ratified in 1961, that residents of the District of Columbia were given the right to vote in Presidential elections. DC was given three electoral votes. That was 171 years from its establishment. It wasn’t until December 24, 1973, that the District was granted home rule.
Before Washington, DC had Home Rule, DC was governed by a three member, Board Of Commissioners, appointed by the president. One of them, had to come from the United States Army Corps Of Engineers. Congress, actually had, and still has the ultimate control over the District. It’s called “funding.”
DC’s Home Rule, is basically autonomous government that is contingent on congressional approval. Remember, who controls the money spigot. Besides that, the president has full authority according to section 740 of the Home Rule Act, to declare a state of emergency, enact federal control of the Metropolitan Police Department, and send in the the National Guard. After 30 days, he must get Congressional approval, in order to continue. Since DC is not a state and has no governor, the president mobilizes the Guard and hands direct control over the the Secretary Of Defense. Will Congress approve the continuation of the state of emergency, after the 30 day period? We’ll see.
A couple of weeks ago, DC’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, had “serious reservations,” about President Trump taking federal control of the city’s police department. Recently, she pretty much stated that she supports the increased presence of federal law enforcement from various agencies, as well as the presence of the National Guard. Thank you Madam Mayor. You have finally joined the adults in the room. You can’t have a great city, until you have a city where the residents feel safe.
Will there be mobilization and deployment of the National Guard in other cities? Maybe. Deployment of federal troops, will be met with lots of legal challenges, and some of them might make it all the way to the Supreme Court. How the Court would rule, is unclear, but the final arbiter is the voting public. If they want law and order they are going to vote for law and order, period! That includes Washington, DC.