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Protestors are denouncing President Donald Trump's federal takeover of Washington, D.C.
On Monday (August 12), hundreds of protestors gathered near the White House as Trump announced his plans to deploy the National Guard and take over Washington D.C.'s police department for 30 days, citing what he called an “out-of-control crime wave," per The Guardian.
“Nothing Trump is doing right now is about our safety,” Keya Chatterjee, executive director of Free DC, an organization advocating for the District’s autonomy, said as she spoke to a crowd of demonstrators gathered on 16th Street Northwest, the site formerly known as Black Lives Matter Plaza.
Protestors held signs that read "Free DC and "This Is Our City," voicing concerns over militarization and the erosion of local governance.
“What we know from history is that authoritarians always want to control the capital and the people in the capital city,” Chatterjee told demonstrators. “It’s because it’s the fastest way to silence dissent and to accelerate their agenda. And I want to be clear, this is not about crime. This is about what Trump is trying to do to D.C. in order to take over D.C. and silence us.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser echoed protesters' concerns, calling Trump's takeover "unsettling and unprecedented." Despite Trump's claims of "rampant lawlessness" in D.C, data shows violent crime in the city is at a 30-year low.
“This isn’t a solution. It’s a performance,” Brian Strege, a neighborhood commissioner in Navy Yard, said. “I tend to be pretty cynical about what the Trump administration is doing right now. This seems pretty clearly just like red meat to throw to his base, this announcement on a Monday.”
The Trump administration also announced plans to reassign 120 FBI agents in D.C. to nighttime patrol duties. Edward Daniels, another commissioner in the area, said seeing federal agents patrolling the streets made him feel “concerned" and not protected.
“It’s going to make things even more chaotic here and cause what I believe to be even more dangerous situations than what we’ve seen here on the ground," Daniels said.
“We don’t need more troops,” Chatterjee added. “We need our voices heard. We need our city respected. And we need to decide for ourselves how we stay safe.”
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