National Democratic politicians and mainstream media commentators have spent the last 24 hours blasting President Donald Trump for announcing a federal takeover of Washington, D.C., police. For liberal and progressive critics of the president, this is undoubtedly yet more evidence of his authoritarian tendencies.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for instance, condemned the president’s move as a deliberate distraction from his incompetence and accused him of hypocrisy because his failure to deploy the National Guard four years ago is what contributed to January 6th — even though former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund has repeatedly clarified that Pelosi herself was the person responsible for failing to enlist the guard.
And on CNN, Abby Phillip described Trump’s takeover of the police as akin to Batman coming to save Gotham, as if that’s a bad thing? I don’t know about you, but I’m sold!
Now in all seriousness, there’s plenty of reason to be generally suspicious of getting the feds more involved in local issues, so I understand a certain level of reflexive distrust at what Trump is doing here. I also think it’s important to tell the truth and be mindful of the facts, not feelings. Just because D.C. feels unsafe to some people doesn’t necessarily mean that it is. We should be mindful of statistics that show that crime in the nation’s capital has thankfully gone down since 2023, although let’s add a little asterisk to that — I’ll circle back in a minute.
All that said, whether crime is technically down or technically up, it’s crystal clear that Washington, D.C., has too much crime, from gangland shootings to mentally ill people attacking pedestrians to flash mobs of teenagers stealing cars and vandalizing convenience stores. That’s why I find it very, very interesting that, at the local level, the relevant political authorities are not echoing the comments by national Democrats and the media.
Consider, for instance, the stance of Muriel Bowser, D.C.’s incumbent Democratic mayor.
Bowser issued a face-saving statement that the federal takeover was “unprecedented and unsettling.” But she did not vow to fight it or to oppose it, and in fact, seems to be sending positive vibes to Trump that she wants to work with him rather than against him on this. That’s because she knows city residents are tremendously frustrated with what’s happening in the district, and more police could make a difference.
Moreover, D.C.’s police union straightforwardly supports Trump on this, though the union thinks full staffing of the local police department is more important as a long-term solution.
Indeed, the things that would really go a long way toward solving the crime problem in D.C. have to do with budgeting, staffing and government competence. The major problem — the single biggest problem impacting the justice system in D.C. — is the lack of a working crime lab.
D.C.’s forensics lab was de-accredited due to various problems several years back, and while it’s now up and running again, it has no means of processing ballistics evidence. That significantly hampers the ability of prosecutors to charge criminals effectively. As a result, D.C. has a very low prosecution rate, and a very low conviction rate, for serious crime.
We need more resources for homicide detectives and prosecutors, and also we need the backlog of superior court judges to be addressed. If you don’t have the system working to investigate, prosecute and convict criminals, you will have more crime. It’s that simple.
Now let’s return to that asterisk: It may not be the case that D.C.’s crime statistics are even accurate. I’ll let former Rep. Peter Meijer make the case:
“I think Mayor Bowser may also know that there’s an ongoing investigation in her police department over the potentially manipulation of those statistics, that there have been a down classing of some of the crimes. There has been a massaging of the numbers in the reporting in order to fit them more beneficially into the FBI crime stats,” said the Michigan Republican. “So, she may know some things that national Democrats are not paying attention to.”
Food for thought.
Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Comments