August 26, 2025
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Since August 12, 2025, when President Donald Trump declared his intention to clean up crime in Washington DC, Rev. Patti Fears said she has watched residents in her beloved city wrestle with competing emotions including fear, anger, anxiety, frustration, defiance and resolve.
For the past two weeks, the nation’s capital has been under a federal and military siege, occupied by troops from the national guard, DC police, and other law enforcement types drawn from an assortment of federal agencies, including ICE (U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security.
Rev. Fears, who has served as senior pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Washington, DC for eight years, said what she’s seeing and hearing is among the most disturbing things she has ever experienced.
“It is becoming an apocalyptic movie. It’s so sad. Anxiety levels are at all-time high. I don’t know what’s going to happen next,” said Fears. “We have a bunch of masked men roaming around. What more stranger danger is there than this? Immigrants are being shipped away and Black boys jailed.”
During a press conference to announce the takeover of the city, Trump painted a dystopian picture of a city overrun by crime, violence and homelessness while declaring a public safety emergency.
Washington DC had been "taken over by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals" as well as "drugged out maniacs and homeless people,” the President said. “I'm announcing a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse … This is liberation day in DC, and we're going to take our capital back."
Trump deployed 800 National Guard troops to work closely with federal law enforcement officers who were also deployed over the August 12 weekend. At first the Guard troops were unarmed. They have since been given permission to carry guns.
Yet, even though the District, like every other US city, is battling crime, the numbers over the past few years belie Trump’s hyperbolic claims.
Mayor Muriel Bowser and other critics cite stats from the Metropolitan Police Department showing that homicides tumbled by 32 percent between 2023 and 2024, reaching their lowest level since 2019. This year, that figure fell 12 percent.
Bowser pushed back against Trump’s claim by saying in a press conference that DC has not and is not experiencing a spike in crime.
What is of great concern to Civil Rights activists, human rights advocates, public safety experts and many DC residents is the fact that these cops are masked, their badges obscured and they’re operating without accountability. They are breaking car windows, dragging people out of their vehicles, houses and apartments, stopping residents in vehicles and on foot, rousting them and demanding papers.
There are checkpoints in every ward. They serve as a de facto curfew tool as many residents are staying off the streets, critics said. ICE jump out crews are in neighborhoods people didn’t expect but they are focusing on Latino-dominated communities such as Mt. Pleasant, Columbia Heights and Petworth.
As one woman on Facebook lamented, “National Guard troops in Humvees are patrolling American streets. Not responding to a natural disaster. Not protecting against foreign invasion. Hunting down American citizens whose only crime is being poor. Let me reiterate: The United States military is being deployed against Americans experiencing homelessness.”
A Southeast DC violence interrupter, who requested anonymity because he says he has been targeted for the work he’s doing, said what Trump describes as fighting crime, is actually racial profiling and a continuation of the over policing, harassment and racial profiling that is everyday life for Black residents in underserved communities.
“The temperature in DC has been terrible. It’s stuff like we’ve never seen before. The temperature in Ward 8 is very different,” he said, referring to the level of anger, suspicion and fear pervading Black sections of the city. “The Border Patrol, ICE and the others antagonize residents and are taking advantage,” the 39-year-old lifelong Ward 8 resident said, “Things are not happening the way the president says…It’s totally not true. We’ve had shootings the same amount as before and we have had homicides absolutely,” he said. “We just had a double shooting and single shooting at Friendship Heights.”
The activist said Trump’s vaunted crackdown on crime is underwhelming so far. Of the 600 arrests that have been reported, he said 200 of those face deportation, 300 have been charged with petty crimes such as loitering and disorderly conduct and 21 people are accused of committing serious crimes.
“Officers just look at this like open season. You don’t see the same things happening in Wards 1 through 4,” he said. “However, in Wards 5 through 8, we’re seeing an influx of officers who are clearly disrespectful of individuals and who are disregarding the law.
“One of the things they’re doing in Ward 8 is pulling up in neighborhoods, trying to say we can’t stand outside in groups. Officers are invading people’s rights.”
The activist said that the cops are telling residents that they cannot be on the sidewalk because being there impedes pedestrians.
“They are arresting people for that. That’s been the issue,” he said. “Another illegal thing they’re doing is breaking in their vehicles that are parked and locked without owners’ permission. They are doing this and more without a warrant.”
Ron Hampton, a retired police officer with the Metropolitan Police Department, agreed with the belief in many quarters that this whole thing is a publicity stunt designed to inflict cruelty on DC’s populace and even appeal to Trump’s political base.
“Am I surprised? Well, yes and no. I thought he doesn’t really care for DC because it is a Democratic city but he doesn’t like Black people,” said Hampton. “If you tell a lie enough, people begin believing it. He’s a racist when it comes to all of this. He’s talking about and looking to target cities run by Black leadership with large Black populations.” Trump has said Chicago will be next even though he does not have authority in Chicago that the federal government has in the District of Columbia.
Hampton, who has extensive knowledge in crime prevention, community relations, and policing, said this project is foolish and pooh-poohed Trump’s claim on Monday morning that he had solved DC’s crime problem in a week.
“You cannot erase crime in a week. I maintain that the 400 arrests are not legitimate,” said Hampton, immediate past executive director of the National Black Police Association, Inc. and currently the Washington, DC representative for Blacks in Law Enforcement of America. “We don’t have enough space here and we have a small cellblock.”
Customarily, cities don’t judge crime by the statistics of one week, Hampton explained. Usually the Federal Bureau of Investigation studies the data and looks at statistics in quarters which are broken down by offense.
Hampton said he believes Trump isn’t above manipulating the numbers as he tightens his grip on his control of DC.
“He will make outrageous claims for 30 days and hopefully go away,” he said.
Hampton was clear about what residents must do in the face of Trump’s efforts to create what he and others say is a police state.
“Our duty and responsibility is to question the feds. I’ll be at schools. We’re there to protect them. I don’t believe that we should be intimidated and take their bullshit,” Hampton asserted. “Information is power. We have to educate people to not be allowed to be intimidated. I’m not afraid of them and I’m not going to allow them to intimidate me.”
One DC mother, who is a lawyer, told Trice Edney Newswire the federal takeover continues to be very oppressive, especially for people of color.
“Our unhoused folks have basically disappeared at this point, yet the mayor continues to deny that a takeover has taken place,” said the woman who spoke on condition of anonymity because she’s acutely aware of the danger of speaking out in this political environment. “The ICE actions and the treatment of the unhoused is the worst of it. So much of the concentration of arrests have been Black people going about their lives. This is targeting the poor, the middle class, people with busy lives. All to punish us for being a Black-run city that voted 94 percent against Trump.”
“The whole situation is lawless. There are no rules being followed. Due process is only happening after people are being held for unbelievable amounts of time.”
Public schools have started in Washington, DC and this woman and other parents are worried because ICE planned to go into bilingual and English as a second language schools, especially at drop off and pick up points in an attempt to arrest Latino parents and others they believe are immigrants.
“This morning at the school near us, the lack of immigrant families was very apparent. Many people are waiting to see what will happen before they try to send their kids to schools,” she said.
William and Mary Law School Professor Kami Chavis said despite being unsurprised with anything that President Trump does she is stunned by the scope and depth of his actions.
“I mean, nothing surprises me with this president, but this is truly astounding, unprecedented and un-American. This flies in the face of constitution,” said Chavis, a former Assistant US attorney in DC and director of the William and Mary Center of Criminal Justice Policy and Reform. “I’m surprised by the acquiescence. Everyone should be upset. This is a symptom of disinformation. The way information and statistics is manipulated makes people feel that this is necessary.”
Chavis said “violent crime and gun violence is an issue in our country but addressing social determinants of crime and gun control is not being seen by this administration.”
As the military occupies a city with a large concentration of Black people, Chavis said she’s deeply concerned that the military is not trained to handle local crime issues.
“Targeted enforcement is the key. We need local partnerships – but all this occupation is doing is fraying that already fragile relationship between the federal government and local officials, Chavis said. “One way we could go about preventing future crime is solving the clearance rate. We cannot solve these cases because they don’t have the trust of the community. We will not solve local crime with untrained military personnel. They are trained for combat.”