Building a Permanent Guard in DC

Our national capital has what appears to be a permanent occupying force.

One year ago today, armed National Guard troops began patrolling the streets of Washington, DC. Donald Trump declared a crime emergency and moved to take over the city’s police. Courts pared that back but the troops stayed.

Today there are 4,600 of them, from twenty-three states. The deployment has been extended through the president’s last day in office. The Pentagon estimates 1.4 billion dollars to keep them here. And the federal government just signed a 292 million dollar contract for permanent apartment-style housing for the soldiers.

Meanwhile, researchers from a centrist think tank found the Guard had almost no effect on violent crime — which was already falling, in DC and nationwide, before the troops arrived. The jail population is up twenty percent. Neighborhood leaders say residents have stopped reporting crimes because they don’t know who will show up — regular police or someone else.

Our national capital has what appears to be a permanent occupying force.