Unreality in the Streets of DC
Trump likes to use force.
“Politicians who describe whole categories of persons as ‘criminals’ are imputing to them permanent character traits that are frightening to most people, while simultaneously positioning themselves as our protectors.” Jason Stanley, How Fascism Works, p. 115.
While the above quote works better to describe the way Trump talks about immigrants, it fits the way he frequently talks about crime in cities (after all, we know who lives in cities!, especially inner cities!). The whole frighten people/be seen as their protector dynamic is fully on display. The people of DC are unlikely to see it that way, but in terms of propaganda for the base watching on Fox News, this will be the real American President protecting the country from those people.
Via the BBC: Trump demands homeless people ‘immediately’ move out of Washington DC.
“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social on Sunday. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong.”
Alongside photos of tents and rubbish, he added: “There will be no ‘MR. NICE GUY.’ We want our Capital BACK. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The specifics of the president’s plan are not yet clear, but in a 2022 speech he proposed moving homeless people to “high quality” tents on inexpensive land outside cities, while providing access to bathrooms and medical professionals.
On Friday, Trump ordered federal agents – including from US Park Police, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the US Marshals Service – into Washington DC to curb what he called “totally out of control” levels of crime.
A White House official told NPR that up to 450 federal officers were deployed on Saturday night.
He seeks to cleanse the city, and is deploying federal law enforcement who do not exist, nor are they trained, for this kind of work.
There is also the fact that Trump’s view of the place is at odds with reality.
Mayor Bowser told MSNBC on Sunday: “It is true that we had a terrible spike in crime in 2023, but this is not 2023.
“We have spent over the last two years driving down violent crime in this city, driving it down to a 30-year low.”
She criticised White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller for dubbing the US capital “more violent than Baghdad”.
“Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false,” Bowser said.
Washington DC’s homicide rate remains relatively high per capita compared to other US cities, with a total of 98 such killings recorded so far this year. Homicides have been trending higher in the US capital from a decade ago.
But federal data from January suggests that Washington DC last year recorded its lowest overall violent crime figures – once carjacking, assault and robberies are incorporated – in 30 years.
Here’s a WTOP piece from December concerning crime in 2024: Violent crime in DC plummets to lowest level in 30 years.
Apparently, this was triggered by a single event.
Trump’s moves come after a 19-year-old former employee of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) was assaulted in an alleged attempted carjacking in Washington DC.
Trump vented about that incident on social media, posting a photo of the bloodied victim.
That is, of course, awful. But it also is not a reason to deploy a mish-mash of 450 federal law enforcement officials who have better things to do than be beat cops or homeless camp clearers.
To add a little farce to all of this, the victim was the infamous Edward “Big Balls” Coristine. Here is a write-up about the crime and Trump’s response via WaPo: Trump threatens federal takeover of D.C. after attack on DOGE worker.
This is Trump playing the part of Big, Powerful Protector because he can. It is using federal law enforcement as a plaything. And it is propagating myths about urban areas and how crime-infested they are, and how only a strong man can fix them.
Also, but it needs to be said, federalizing the District would not mean the end of crime. This notion that crime goes away if there is some show of force is a timeworn trope of the right, but history and just genereal human experience would like a word.
Justin Glaw, writing at Public Notice (Crime is down. But Trump’s authoritarian power grabs are escalating.), notes the following, which includes a reference to an incident in Ohio that apparently is part of the administration’s crime narrative.
The events being seized upon by the White House and Republicans as evidence of surging crime have little to do with one another save for the fact that the victims are white. In the case of the brawl in Cincinnati, those “victims” may not be entirely innocent: two white men faced off against a largely Black crowd on July 26, with one of the men spewing a racial slur. The other white man involved may have been a willing combatant in the melee, slapping a Black man in the face and squaring off to fight, as seen in videos circulating online. (Police have disputed that the slap was the impetus of the brawl.)
All of this using “law and order” to foment more fear and “us v. them” politics, while all the while trying to gaslight the public about the crime rate and how to fix it.
Meanwhile, via Reuters: US military preparing for National Guard activation in Washington D.C., officials say.
One of the officials said it was unclear what exactly the troops would do, but could take part in efforts to protect federal agents or even carry out administrative tasks to free up law enforcement officials.
That’ll fix crime!
What we have here is a president wanting to burnish his Strong Man image by misusing federal assets as part of the ongoing narrative that cities, where a lot of Black people live, are out of control and need to be subdued. All while lying about the problem to boot.
Side note: this will not fix the homeless problem, and will likely make things even worse for those who are cleared out. (Kudos to The Guardian for this headline, Trump orders homeless he passed en route to golf course to leave Washington DC).
I assume DC has relevant ordinances related to homelessness that remain the law of the City until the DC Council changes them or is overridden by some change in the home rule statute. That leads me to believe that any forceable relocation in excess of the City code would itself be lawless.
Having lived in DC for over a decade (several decades ago), I am really curious where exactly these federal assets were deployed, though I have some guesses where they were and were not stationed.
I currently live in a small city, though I travel to large cities pretty regularly. I encounter plenty of people from my own city, let alone smaller towns, who live in absolute fear of big cities because of what they have read but never experienced.
@Joe:
Exactly this. I live in a small town outside of Montgomery. I am literally on the edge of my town (across the street is in the county, and it’s a cattle ranch). But I also like big cities.
And you are correct: the fear of big cities is a constant among people who don’t live or travel there.
The last time we went to NYC for a trip, I had numerous people express concern (Why? Because FNC had been hyping crime on the subways).
The belief that cities are war zones is common in smaller towns in America.
People are also terrible at understanding things like murder rates or what the actual chances are that you will be te victim of crime.
What @Joe said. So much. I grew up with these people.
Meanwhile, Trump also does outrageous stunts like this because it diverts attention. From things like the Epstein case.
At the moment, the crime rate in the Oval Office is higher than crime rate in American cities. I’m sure Trump will manage the D.C. police as competently as he manages everything else.
It’s not often that I agree with Trump, but I lived in DC proper for 25 years and left specifically because of crime. Until about 2016 DC was getting better and better, then the DC council started amending the Youth Act and passed something called the Near Act and crime just skyrocketed. My question is, what is Trump going to do about the laws the DC Council passed that are enabling crime? Also, the judges in DC, who let youth get away with everything.
Since liberals failed greatly in DC, Trump will use situations like this to get more power….and people will love him for it.
@Steven L. Taylor: We went to NYC over Memorial Day weekend for a wedding. Stayed in an AirBNB in Queens and a hotel near Grand Central Station on Manhatten. Rode the subways everyday all over the place even in our wedding finest (wedding was in Queens). No fear; no problem. It was great!
@Steven L. Taylor:
I would feel infinitely safer in a large city than I would in the parking lot of a convenience in rural Ohio filled with Trump stickered pick-up trucks.
They aren’t afraid of the cities — they are afraid of the Others who populate them.
Maybe some enterprising person should rent a bus, purchase some tents and cooking gear and transport the homeless to Trump’s National Golf Club outside of DC.
After all, he promised accomodations.
BTW, aren’t most of the Fox talent residents of NYC?
1). “Big Balls” got his ass kicked by two 15 year olds, one a girl.
2). Trump listed several other cities that are “next.” All blue. Political theater that cannot be allowed to even start. There should already be lawsuits filed to stop this nonsense.
Looks like a step towards building a “security moat” around Trump’s power center to forestall public reactions to his administration’s future authoritarian measures —–thereby effectively ending “the peoples symbolic access” to their government. Protest will be quashed. The screws tighten.
@Daryl:
I fear filing lawsuits hearkens back to a bygone era when the Supreme Court believed in the rule of law.
This is really kinda comical when you get down to it.
A convicted felon, that pardoned >400 other felons who attacked Police Officers in his name, in DC, NOW seeks to Federalize law enforcement in DC, where crime is at a 30 year low, because a sycophant called “Big Balls” got beat up by two teenagers – one who is a girl.
Why aren’t the Nat’l Press standing in these News Conferences and simply asking WTF?
Also, the stable genius said, in the same News Conference, that he is going to Russia to meet with Putin. He’s actually going to Alaska.
It’s pretty straightforward: After deploying the military and ICE in LA, Washington DC is an easy next step to get people used to (1) pressuring local police to grant de facto control to the federal government, (2) deploying American troops in American cities, (3) turning federal law enforcement (in this case, the FBI and the Marshals Service) into a giant goon squad, (4) defining imaginary threats that justify all this (especially when there are minorities involved), and (5) further demonizing Democratic politicians.
I’m sure a sternly worded letter from someone will clear all this up.
This isn’t “incipient” authoritarianism. It’s the real thing, fully manifested.
So let me get thig straight, I’m 9/11 he was powerless to deploy the National Guard to protect the capitol, but now he is the great and powerful OZ how can call on the National Guard to whisk crime away with a snap of his fingers?
What am I missing other then Trump logic?
It’s so coincidental that I almost think that they kept sending people out on the streets to be assholes and try to provoke something that can be used as an excuse.
But, this is Big Balls, and I expect he just naturally invites this kind of response by existing. I’d like to hear the two 15 year olds’ versions of the story. What did Mr. Balls do to start this?
@Scott:
Not just Fox. Almost all of the right-wing punditry lives in metro areas centered on blue cities. No matter what they may profess to the base, they all seem fond of urban amenities.
@Daryl:
And it’s in bad taste to spoil the surprise dowry El Taco is bringing.
@Kingdaddy:
I’ve been assured that Trump will remain merely a wannabe dictator up to the very moment he prevents the general election in 2028. Authoritarianism is apparently a “it is/“it is not” binary sort of condition.
@Scott F.: Don’t be alarmist. He won’t cancel the elections. A smart authoritarian knows to keep the elections, and just adjust either the allowed candidates, or the outcomes. And there are smart authoritarians in his circle.
I assume Trump will drop dead of being a fat 80 year old man with vascular problems that are often comorbid with more deadly conditions before then. And then MAGA will tear itself to pieces.
But, if he doesn’t, I expect he will try to install a figurehead President he rules through for a third term, and discover that the figurehead has no real use for him, and that he will become a figurehead “power behind the throne,” aimlessly wandering about the new ballroom or something, muttering racial slurs.
@HelloWorld: You are, I hate to say, falling for bullshit.
This is not some serious attempt to actually deal with crime.
@HelloWorld: Violent crime is at its lowest level in DC in literally decades.
Yes, violent crime still happens. But it also on occasion even happens here in New Hampshire, which has some of the lowest rates in the country, for both violent crime and property crimes.
You are falling for misinformation (also known as lies), being used to distract his followers/base from continuing to ask about his obvious involvement with Epstein, or the firing of the BLS lead, or his tariffs, or who knows what else. He’s a mess and this is a Potemkin move to make people think he’s “doing something about crime”.
I posted this on the previous thread, the one with the ‘Trump as Rambo’ image.
The Trump base voted for Trump in lage part because he projected strength and brute force. So I’m certain that Trump’s base completely supports him on the temporary federalized DC takeover, afterall it’s a ‘libtard’ city.
This broader discussion feels concerningly similar to the previous one about inflation.
I’ve always felt very safe in NYC. And I’m from Canada.
As always, when talking about Criminal Legal System data, I suggest going to Jeff Asher –an expert analyst and a straight shooter who always shows his work. Here’s his overall summary on what the current data show about crime trends in DC:
FWIW, this matches what we are seeing across the country.
Jeff’s wrapup from the analysis:
Unfortunately, as with most forms of data, humans are far more driven by their biases and anecdotal perception than by what’s actually happening on the ground.
—
Three notes:
1. Right now life’s been rather intense for me. As a result I haven’t been able to contribute as much as I’d like, but I miss ya’ll!
2. I’m sure there are people reading this who are thinking, “but, what about all the unreported crime I hear about?!” First, note the inherent anecdotal part of that phrase–“I hear about.” More importantly, for an in-depth explanation of why “under-reported crime” doesn’t effectively skew the data, see this article from last year: https://outsidethebeltway.com/why-we-can-say-crime-is-down-part-1-of-2/
3. I’m old enough to remember when the former interim US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, celebrated a huge drop off in crime in DC just a few months ago: https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/us-attorney-ed-martin-jr-credits-president-trumps-first-100-days-25-drop-dc-violent