Democrats fret about which city may be next as National Guard gathers in US capital

By Andrew Goudsward and Julia Harte

WASHINGTON, Aug 12 - A steady stream of uniformed soldiers arrived at the National Guard headquarters in Washington on Tuesday to begin the deployment of troops called up to fight crime in the nation's capital, as Democrats raised concerns about which city might be next.

President Donald Trump's deployment of the 800-strong force has been described by Democrats as political theater. With Trump threatening to replicate the move in other big cities, Democrats point to statistics showing that violent crime in Washington has dropped to historic lows in the past two years.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser sought to put a positive spin on the deployment on Tuesday, saying she wanted to use the extra personnel to drive down crime, despite earlier calling the move "unsettling and unprecedented."

She said the National Guard would not have power to arrest people. Troops will carry no weapons but will have their standard issue firearms, usually rifles, close at hand, an official said. In addition, Trump will send about 500 federal law enforcement agents to supplement the city's police force during the 30-day emergency deployment.

Washington resident Rebecca Harkey, out for a walk with her child on Tuesday, said crime had made her consider leaving the capital and that it was "very much an active fear" in her life.

Rodney Miller, who has lived in the Washington area for 50 years, however, questioned the need for National Guard troops given lower crime levels now.

In the District of Columbia, violent crime has rapidly declined since a spike in 2023 and is now at historically low levels, data shows.

In an announcement on Monday, the president said he sought to rid the city of "violent criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people."

Monica Hopkins, executive director of the ACLU's D.C. office, called the National Guard deployment and the granting of temporary control of the D.C. Metropolitan Police to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi "political theater and a blatantly phony justification for abuse of emergency powers."

Even before the National Guard deployment, the administration has been using federal law enforcement agents to address what it sees as a crisis in the capital. The White House said that on Monday alone about 850 officers and agents made 23 arrests on charges such as homicide and driving under the influence and seized six illegal handguns.

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the capital, dismissed a question about how violence in the capital compared to other cities. "All I know is we rank in death," she said at a news conference on Tuesday. "I don't need any more statistics."

BREAK WITH NORMS

In Washington, the D.C. National Guard reports directly to the president. In the states, by contrast, the National Guard serves as a militia that answers to the governor, except when called into federal service.

Troops are rarely deployed to police U.S. civilians. Trump’s decision to take control of California’s National Guard in June in response to immigration protests was the first time since the 1992 Rodney King riots that National Guard members were deployed in response to unrest on U.S. soil. Other deployments came in response to disasters or to bolster border security.

After California sued, a trial is underway to determine the legality of Trump’s use of the troops - the first time since the Civil Rights era that a state’s National Guard was federalized without the consent of a state’s governor.

During Trump's election campaign he singled out majority Democratic cities such as Baltimore, Chicago and Washington - all cities with large Black populations - when he spoke about rampant crime in urban areas.

Chicago, which Trump mentioned on Monday, has long been beset by violent crime, but it was down significantly in the first half of the year.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement on Monday that homicides dropped 30% in the past two years and shootings were down 40% in the past year alone.

"If President Trump wants to help make Chicago safer, he can start by releasing the funds for anti-violence programs that have been critical to our work to drive down crime and violence," Johnson said.

Trump also spoke on Monday of crime in New York and other cities that he attributed in part to their elimination of "cash bail" laws. In 2019 New York dropped requirements that accused criminals post a cash bond to get out of jail ahead of trial for low-level crimes. Lawmakers subsequently added exceptions and New York Governor Kathy Hochul fought to reinstate judges' ability to set cash bail.

A spokesperson for Hochul, a Democrat who last year sent National Guard troops into New York City’s subway system to fight crime, said that the state and city's crime rates were at record lows.