Donald Trump has now taken over the police force in Washington D.C. and deployed the National Guard. He claims that this is in the name of “out-of-control violent crime” in the district.
Yes, this is the man who incited a violent insurrection at the Capitol in 2021, did not call in the National Guard, and then pardoned those who participated.
Here are the facts: Violent crime in D.C. recently marked a 30-year low — down 35% in 2024, and continuing to trend downwards in 2025.
But the facts don’t really matter to Trump, apparently. Because this was never actually about “crime.”
Washington D.C. is a vibrant, majority minority city. Cries of “law and order” and “tough-on-crime” have long been used as racist dogwhistles. Donald Trump is the same man who wanted to lynch the exonerated 5. His intentions are clear.
Overpolicing does not make us safer. Criminalizing young, Black men does not make us safer. “Tough-on-crime” policies do not make us safer.
Donald Trump’s militarization of D.C. is a continuation of our country’s long history of criminalizing, surveilling, and incarcerating Black and brown people to uphold white supremacy.
If we really wanted to talk about public safety, we could talk about creating first-response units of licensed social workers, mental health counselors, substance use counselors, and peer support specialists.
We could talk about gun violence prevention.
We could talk about addressing the root causes of crime like poverty.
We could talk about combatting the rise of white nationalism in our country.
Those are the types of public safety measures that I will always champion.
I’m going to keep calling a spade a spade and a racist a racist. I will continue to fight back against this authoritarian takeover of our government and defend our communities — including the people of D.C. who have been denied the protections of statehood and representation.
In Solidarity,
Ayanna
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Paid for by the Committee to Elect Ayanna Pressley
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