D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser defended the town’s dealing with of crime amid an escalation of threats from President Donald Trump to federalize the nation’s capital.
“We now have spent over the past two years driving down violent crime on this metropolis–driving it all the way down to a 30-year low, in reality, over the previous 12 months,” Bowser advised MSNBC on Saturday. “We now have decreased violent crime by 26% [and] the 12 months earlier than that, by 35%.”
Trump railed in opposition to D.C.’s crime after a prime worker of the White Home’s DOGE company was assaulted final week throughout an tried carjacking. In consequence, he known as for extra federal police presence on the streets of the District of Columbia and mentioned that minors as younger as 14 years previous must be charged as adults.
Over the weekend, the Trump administration deployed as much as 120 federal brokers, principally from the FBI, to help the Metropolitan Police in stopping crimes in D.C., which have largely been carjackings.
On Sunday, the president introduced he would maintain a press convention on the White Home to handle D.C.’s crime and the town’s “Beautification.” The announcement fuels hypothesis that he’ll deploy the Nationwide Guard, which he has the authorized authority to do since D.C. is just not a state and is domestically ruled.
Nevertheless, Bowser pushed again in opposition to Trump’s characterizations of D.C., which is a majority Black and Brown metropolis.
“We’re not experiencing against the law spike,” mentioned the D.C. mayor, who credited years-long coordination between D.C. metropolis officers and federal businesses in preserving the nation’s capital protected.
Throughout her MSNBC interview, Bowser sought to humanize the town, which has lengthy been a goal of Republicans who’ve threatened to take federal management of D.C. and forged it as poorly run and harmful to reside in. The mayor mentioned D.C. was amongst “essentially the most lovely and finest cities on the planet.”
“It’s effectively run. We now have glorious colleges. The primary park system. We now have skilled rises in tourism in comparison with earlier than the pandemic. So individuals are coming to our capital. They’re beginning companies in our capital, they usually’re elevating households in our capital,” mentioned Bowser.
“Any comparability to a war-torn nation is hyperbolic and false,” she added, referencing White Home Deputy Chief of Employees Stephen Miller’s comment that D.C. is “worse than Baghdad.”
Residents and advocates have lengthy resisted these characterizations and threats as unfaithful, racialized, and undemocratic, on condition that D.C. is self-governed below the Residence Rule Act.
In a Sunday Reality Social put up, Trump steered he was near utilizing his federal powers to take management of the nation’s capital. To what diploma is unknown.
“The Mayor of D.C., Muriel Bowser, is an effective one that has tried, however she has been given many probabilities, and the Crime Numbers worsen, and the Metropolis solely will get dirtier and fewer enticing,” wrote Trump, who additionally known as out the town’s homelessness and demanded that unhoused people “transfer out, IMMEDIATELY.”
Bowser mentioned that if Trump needs to make the town safer, he may take motion on the federal stage, like guaranteeing that extra prosecutors are employed and extra federal judges are confirmed by Congress.
“We now have 15 vacancies within the Superior Courtroom, which we have to go all the way down to the Congress for approval. We now have two vacancies within the Courtroom of Appeals,” the mayor defined. “Anytime you’ve got a backlog within the courts, you’ve got delayed justice and individuals are much less protected.”
Bowser additionally touted actions taken by her workplace and the D.C. Metropolis Council, corresponding to altering native legal legal guidelines. She famous the town’s interventions, corresponding to permitting the town to carry violent offenders utilizing weapons pre-trial. “We’ve seen shootings and homicides precipitously drop,” she shared.
In his Sunday put up, Trump vowed to do in D.C. what he was in a position to do on the U.S. border since reentering workplace six months in the past.
“Identical to I took care of the Border, the place you had ZERO Illegals coming throughout final month, from thousands and thousands the 12 months earlier than, I’ll care for our cherished Capital, and we are going to make it, really, GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote.
