D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) wrote a letter to local residents Friday seeking to quell anxiety over the Trump administration’s federal takeover of Washington’s law enforcement.
Under a provision in the district’s Home Rule Act, President Trump earlier this week deployed National Guard troops and federal officials to patrol the streets in the nation’s capital. Bowser has blasted the move as “unsettling and unprecedented.”
“It has been an unsettling and unprecedented week in our city. Over the course of a week, the surge in federal law enforcement across DC has created waves of anxiety,” she wrote in the memo. “I was born one year before Home Rule became law, and while our autonomy has been challenged before, our limited self-government has never faced the type of test we are facing right now.”
“My jobs are many right now. Part of my job is just managing us through this crisis and making sure that our government continues to operate in a way that makes DC residents proud,” she added. “The first day of school is just over a week away, and our kids deserve a strong and joyful start to the year no matter what is happening in our city.”
The president said his goal is to crack down on violent crime in the city — despite data showing the crime rate decreasing — but local residents have been seen protesting the administration’s efforts in recent days.
Bowser in her letter vowed to defend the autonomy of Washington, including the local police department.
“We know that our access to democracy is different than anywhere else in America,” she wrote. “That said, while our Home Rule is limited, we still have rights as American citizens and we still have powers of local self-government.”
The comments come after the Trump administration made waves Thursday after announcing Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chief Terry Cole would take over the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) as “emergency police commissioner.”
Following a lawsuit brought on by D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, alleging the Justice Department (DOJ) overstepped its authority, the administration walked back the effort.
The mayor celebrated the decision in her letter to residents and praised MPD Chief Pamela Smith for her resilience.
“I am pleased to be able to report that, after a day in court and in accordance with Home Rule, Pamela Smith remains our Chief of Police, in command and control of the 3,100 men and women at the Metropolitan Police Department. I am incredibly proud of how the Chief has handled this experience,” she wrote. “Our city has also spent more than two decades building trust between MPD and the community, and it is important to all of us – and to the safety of our city – that we keep that trust.”
Bowser concluded the memo by touting a list of the city’s accomplishments and commended the residents for always sticking together.
“And what I have seen over this past week is a city that knows how to stick together,” the mayor continued. “I know that if we keep sticking together, we will make it to the other side of this, we will make future generations of Washingtonians proud, and we will show the entire nation what it looks like to fight for American democracy – even when we don’t have full access to it.”
She also received flack days earlier for leaving D.C. amid the turmoil — a trip she said was to pick up her daughter from summer camp. While out of town, federal forces began cleaning out local homeless encampments.
Trump also announced a plan to work with GOP lawmakers in Congress to approve a joint resolution to extend the federal takeover of MPD beyond the 30 days allotted in the Home Rule Act. Democrats have also introduced a separate bill to relinquish Trump’s authority over local police.
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