Plans are underway by the U.S. military to place National Guard soldiers on active duty in the country’s capital, Washington, D.C., as a response to street crimes in the area, instigated by directives from President Trump. As of the early part of the week, there has been no formal authorization from Mr. Trump for this deployment. However, it is expected that he will officially announce during a White House news briefing that a significant number of National Guard troops from the District of Columbia will be deployed to aid law enforcement officials in the capital.
Detailed accounts of this potential deployment weren’t available at the beginning of the week. Despite a declining trend in the crime rates in Washington, D.C., President Trump keeps insisting that the situation has spiralead out of control, yielding the possibility of federal intervention. The likely deployment of the National Guard, first reported by Reuters, would paradoxically not include arrest powers for the troops.
Rather, their primary role would presumably be to assist the police officers and law enforcement officials by relieving them of some of their duties, thus allowing them to dedicate more time to patrolling. Additionally, as part of this crime reduction initiative, the Trump administration aims to provisionally allocate 120 F.B.I. agents from the Washington office to cover nighttime patrol duties.
Most of these F.B.I. agents, it is expected, will be temporarily relieved of their customary responsibilities at the Washington field office. This move to activate troops in Washington follows a similar initiative earlier in the summer, whereby close to 5,000 National Guard soldiers were deployed to Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles deployment was in response to a surge in protests following immigration raids, with the National Guard charged to assist in controlling these outbreaks and to offer protection to the federal agents carrying out the raids. Since that deployment, all but approximately 250 of those National Guard soldiers have been recalled.
During his first term, President Trump ordered National Guard soldiers and federal law enforcement officers to disperse peaceful protesters during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that arose in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in police custody in 2020.
Unlike in other states, where a governor holds control over the state’s National Guard, the unique situation in Washington, D.C., means control of the D.C. National Guard falls under the purview of the president. This grants the president an extensive range of discretion when it comes to activating these troops.
The post Trump Plans for National Guard Deployment in DC Amidst Street Crimes appeared first on Real News Now.
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