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John Glavin's avatar

It's so obvious - in a few weeks Trump will use real statistics and twist them to claim crime is down BECAUSE of his mobilization of troops.

He's not subtle. But his followers aren't too bright either.

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Bill Lorenzo's avatar

God help us if this madness is not stopped, which needs to happen NOW! Man up Congress!

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Thomas Thompson's avatar

Good thought, but congress, at least on the 'pub side, is populated with cowardly mice who are terrified of Trump!

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Ana warner's avatar

Maybe the Tangerine Terrorist is deliberately trying to choke DC economically? He knows putting troops in high visibility and tourist areas hurts businesses and intimidates workers and business owners. Since DC voters have no real representation in voting, he can exact retribution on its people without consequence.

I thought that they said all officers will be unmasked and identifiable in DC? Apparently that was another lie.

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Janet Carter's avatar

And these actions are still happening in SoCal!

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Torrance Stephens's avatar

We saw what soft-on-crime policy was like for the last 30 years and what it’s done to black communities. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but midnight basketball doesn’t work. https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/white-milksops-protest-in-dc-to-advocate

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Roald Evensen's avatar

A friend who lives in downtown DC put it to me simply: If the militarization of DC was really about crime reduction, the troops would be headed to Southeast, not mingling with tourists on the National Mall.

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Thomas Thompson's avatar

The troops in DC act more like tourists than police, patrolling the mall, Georgetown, the nightclub district, etc. They are saying "there have been FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ARRESTS since they've been there. This is a metro area of 700,000 people, and 450 arrests in a week sounds about right! They aren't allowed to carry guns, they avoid the high crime areas, and in general are simply unwanted guests who won't go home!

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Karen Evans Quackenbush's avatar

What is happening to the homeless?

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VEE LAVALLEE's avatar

So now the only people in DC walking around are those that are white, blonde (bottled or not) and blue eyed! That's why nobody will be a tourist in this capital city again. There you go trump you've managed to BANKRUPT Washington, a tourist Mecca! You truly are a malicious, know nothing, imbecile. I bet Melania can't wait until you give up this part time shift work. Then she can divorce you and take some of those billions. I don't like Melania so you have my permission to drag this through the courts until hell freezes over. You deserve each other because you're both fakes and liars.

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Linda T. Cades's avatar

I lived off and on in the DC metro area for about 12 years, visiting downtown DC often. I worked one summer in a program for kids in one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. In addition, I have lost count of the protests I have attended there since the 1960's. Despite that, I have never had the slightest problem or hesitated to be in DC.

Now I might hesitate to attend a protest in DC because in addition to "fighting crime" which is at a 30 year low there, Trump claims his army is there to quell "civil unrest." What that says is that he will have them ready to attack protesters as he did at St. John's Church in 2020. On that occasion, to clear the area for a photo op, he had police fire tear gas at peaceful protesters demonstrating about the death of George Floyd.

Like any major city, DC has its problems, but many of those could be solved by giving DC real home rule. Ultimately Congress and now Trump have power over DC's leaders who can protest against what they are doing but cannot stop them. Congress recently cancelled out a crime bill that city leaders had passed.

In addition, the District's residents have no say in the laws passed in Congress that govern them. More people live in DC than in either Vermont or Wyoming, but those states have a House Representative and 2 senators each. DC has only a non-voting delegate. Unless, Trump has managed to change all of the American history exhibits at the Smithsonian and the documents housed in the National Archives, our founders fought a revolution over taxation without representation.

A word to other cities led by Democratic mayors: you may be next. You must prepare for that by refusing to obey in advance and speaking out against Trump's lawless occupation of one of our great cities.

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MzNicky in East Jesus, TN's avatar

Thank you for this post. I really appreciate how you lay out the various ways this ludicrous show of force in DC is harmful to so many people, some of which I as a non-DC resident would have otherwise been unaware (for ex., the plight of delivery drivers).

Also, many thanks for the shout-out for Danny Hodges. Whenever I see the asinine “ACAB” trope trotted out, after my hair catches fire, I as politely as possible refer the person to Google our Jan6 hero cops and then STFU with that noise.

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