The arrival of 800 National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. has been criticized by local officials, who describe it as an authoritarian move amid claims of rising crime. President Trump labeled the intervention as a necessary crime crackdown, referring to it as "Liberation Day," despite the fact that violence in the city is reportedly at a 30-year low. Critics, including Washington's mayor, argue there is no justification for such a military presence, and city officials have not requested federal help. The legality of deploying troops across state lines remains uncertain pending legal rulings.
Trump cast his decision to involve the National Guard in Washington as a crime crackdown, calling it "Liberation Day" and claiming the city needed rescuing from "crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor."
Federal data contradicts Trump's claim, with statistics showing that DC's violent crime is at a 30-year low. Critics say that based on this, there is no emergency that requires a military presence in the capital.
"It does look, if you look at the data, [like] crime is going down," said Laura Dickinson, a law professor at George Washington University.
"This is really problematic and contrary to our tradition in the United States, where we've been very cautious about using the military to do law enforcement functions," Dickinson added.
Collection
[
|
...
]