President Trump is promising to unveil on Monday his plan to “stop violent crime” in the nation’s capital.
In a posting Saturday on his Truth Social site, Mr. Trump wrote: “On Monday a Press Conference will be held at the White House which will, essentially, stop violent crime in Washington, D.C. It has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World.”
FBI statistics show that crime in Washington has declined steeply in the past two years and that the city is much safer than many international metropolises, as well as some U.S. cities such as St. Louis and Baltimore.
Nevertheless, the president seized on the issue following an assault on a young staffer who was part of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency during a carjacking attempt a week ago.
“We just almost lost a young man, beautiful handsome guy that got the hell knocked out of him,” Mr. Trump said on Wednesday, adding that he might send the National Guard to police the streets of Washington.
“We’re going to beautify the city. We’re going to make it beautiful. And what a shame, the rate of crime, the rate of muggings, killings and everything else. We’re not going to let it. And that includes bringing in the National Guard, maybe very quickly, too,” he said.
A day later, Mr. Trump announced plans to deploy federal law enforcement officers to the district for seven days. A White House statement said the officers would be “highly visible” and operate mostly during the overnight period when crime in most prevalent. The statement said the deployment could be extended if necessary.
D.C.’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, has been slow to respond to the proposed initiative, but a few other officials have begun to push back.
The District’s non-voting representative in Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, was quoted on Friday by Politico calling the use of federal agencies “a disproportionate overreaction that’s offensive to D.C.”
An at-large member of the City Council, Christina Henderson, called it an “extreme” move.
The Council chairman, Phil Mendelson, did not directly address Mr. Trump’s proposal but issued a statement challenging the notion that Washington is suffering from an epidemic of crime.
“Crime in the District is at the lowest rates we’ve seen in 30 years,” Politico quoted him as saying, a claim borne out by the FBI statistics.
“The Council will continue to proactively look at ways we can improve our laws and support our officers. But prosecutorial declinations remain high, and the police closing of cases with arrests remains low, and both will make the biggest difference in deterring crime.”
After spiking during the pandemic, violent crime in the capital declined by 35 percent last year, with a 32 percent reduction in homicides. Violent crime is down another 26 percent through the first half of this year, based on data released by the FBI.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
