{"id":43283,"date":"2025-08-15T21:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T04:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=43283"},"modified":"2025-08-15T21:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T04:59:08","slug":"trumps-rhetoric-about-dc-echoes-a-history-of-racist-narratives-about-urban-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/trumps-rhetoric-about-dc-echoes-a-history-of-racist-narratives-about-urban-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s rhetoric about DC echoes a history of racist narratives about urban crime"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Trump has activated 800 National Guard members to address what he calls a crime emergency in Washington, D.C. Some residents are reacting. (AP Video: River Zhang)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>BY\u00a0\u00a0MATT BROWN<\/a> Updated 8:30 AM PDT, August 12, 2025 (APNews.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25b6 Follow live updates on President Donald Trump and his administration<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump has taken control<\/a> of D.C.’s law enforcement and ordered National Guard troops<\/a> to deploy onto the streets of the nation\u2019s capital, arguing the extraordinary moves are necessary to curb an urgent public safety crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as district officials questioned the claims<\/a> underlying his emergency declaration, the Republican president promised a \u201chistoric action to rescue our nation\u2019s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.\u201d His rhetoric echoed that used by conservatives going back decades who have denounced cities, especially those with majority non-white populations or led by progressives, as lawless or crime-ridden and in need of outside intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is liberation day in D.C., and we\u2019re going to take our capital back,\u201d Trump promised Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s action echoes uncomfortable historical chapters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As D.C. the National Guard arrived at their headquarters<\/a> Tuesday, for many residents, the prospect of federal troops surging into neighborhoods represented an alarming violation of local agency. To some, it echoes uncomfortable historical chapters when politicians used language to paint historically or predominantly Black cities and neighborhoods with racist narratives to shape public opinion and justify aggressive police action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"President
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Aug. 11, 2025, in Washington, as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, left, and Attorney General Pam Bondi look on. (AP Photo\/Alex Brandon, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

April Goggans, a longtime D.C. resident and grassroots organizer, said she was not surprised by Trump\u2019s actions. Communities had been preparing for a potential federal crackdown in D.C. since the summer of 2020, when Trump deployed troops during racial justice protests after the murder of George Floyd<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Federal agents will be out 24\/7 on patrol in DC, White House says<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to be vigilant,\u201d said Goggans, who has coordinated local protests for nearly a decade. She worries about what a surge in law enforcement could mean for residents\u2019 freedoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRegardless of where you fall on the political scale, understand that this could be you, your children, your grandmother, your co-worker who are brutalized or have certain rights violated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other residents reacted with mixed feelings to Trump\u2019s executive order. Crime and homelessness has been a top concern for residents in recent years, but opinions on how to solve the issue vary. And very few residents take Trump\u2019s catastrophic view of life in D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think Trump\u2019s trying to help people, some people,\u201d said Melvin Brown, a D.C. resident. \u201cBut as far as (him) trying to get (the) homeless out of this city, that ain\u2019t going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a band-aid to a gunshot wound,\u201d said Melissa Velasquez, a commuter into D.C. \u201cI feel like there\u2019s been an increase of racial profiling and stuff, and so it\u2019s concerning for individuals who are worried about how they might be perceived as they go about their day-to-day lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mayor
Mayor Brandon Johnson responds to an overnight shooting during a news conference at City Hall in the Loop, July 3, 2025. (Ashlee Rezin\/Chicago Sun-Times via AP, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Washington
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks during a news conference on President Donald Trump’s plan to place Washington police under federal control and deploy National guard troops to Washington, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Uncertainty raises alarms<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to White House officials, troops will be deployed to protect federal assets and facilitate a safe environment for law enforcement to make arrests. The Trump administration believes the highly visible presence of law enforcement will deter violent crime. It is unclear how the administration defines providing a safe environment for law enforcement to conduct arrests, raising alarm bells for some advocates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe president foreshadowed that if these heavy-handed tactics take root here, they will be rolled out to other majority-Black and Brown cities, like Chicago, Oakland and Baltimore, across the country,\u201d said Monica Hopkins, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union\u2019s D.C. chapter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen before how federal control of the D.C. National Guard and police can lead to abuse, intimidation and civil rights violations \u2014 from military helicopters swooping over peaceful racial justice protesters in 2020 to the unchecked conduct of federal officers who remain shielded from full accountability,\u201d Hopkins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A history of denigrating language<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Conservatives have for generations used denigrating language to describe the condition of major cities and called for greater law enforcement, often in response to changing demographics in those cities driven by nonwhite populations relocating in search of work or safety from racial discrimination and state violence. Republicans have called for greater police crackdowns in cities since at least the 1965 Watts Riots in Los Angeles<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Richard Nixon<\/a> won the White House in 1968 after campaigning on a \u201claw and order\u201d agenda to appeal to white voters in northern cities alongside overtures to white Southerners as part of his \u201cSouthern Strategy.\u201d Ronald Reagan similarly won both his presidential elections after campaigning heavily on law and order politics. Politicians, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani<\/a> and former President Bill Clinton<\/a> have cited the need to tamp down crime as a reason to seize power from liberal cities for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser<\/a> called Trump\u2019s takeover of local police \u201cunsettling\u201d but not without precedent. Bowser kept a mostly measured tone during a Monday news conference but decried Trump\u2019s reasoning<\/a> as a \u201cso-called emergency,\u201d saying residents \u201cknow that access to our democracy is tenuous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump threatened to \u201ctake over\u201d and \u201cbeautify\u201d D.C. on the campaign trail and claimed it was \u201ca nightmare of murder and crime.\u201d He also argued the city was \u201chorribly run\u201d and said his team intended \u201cto take it away from the mayor.\u201d Trump on Monday repeated old comments about some of the nation\u2019s largest cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland and his hometown of New York City. All are currently run by Black mayors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities in a very bad, New York is a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don\u2019t even mention that anymore. They\u2019re so far gone. We\u2019re not going to let it happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Civil rights advocates see the rhetoric as part of a broader political strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a playbook he\u2019s used in the past,\u201d said Maya Wiley<\/a>, CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Oakland
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee speaks to the crowd at Wilma Chan Park before they march through downtown during a \u201cNo Kings\u201d protest, June 14, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (Jessica Christian\/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s rhetoric \u201cpaints a picture that crime is out of control, even when it is not true, then blames the policies of Democratic lawmakers that are reform- and public safety-minded, and then claims that you have to step in and violate people\u2019s rights or demand that reforms be reversed,\u201d Wiley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added that the playbook has special potency in D.C. because local law enforcement can be directly placed under federal control, a power Trump invoked in his announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaders call the order an unjustified distraction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s actions in Washington and comments about other major cities sent shock waves across the country, as other leaders prepare to respond to potential federal action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement that Trump\u2019s plan \u201clacks seriousness and is deeply dangerous\u201d and pointed to a 30-year-low crime rate in Baltimore as a reason the administration should consult local leaders rather than antagonize them. In Oakland, Mayor Barbara Lee called Trump\u2019s characterization of the city \u201cfearmongering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The administration already faced a major flashpoint between local control and federal power earlier in the summer, when Trump deployed National Guard troops<\/a> to quell protests and support immigration enforcement operations in LA despite opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a> and LA Mayor Karen Bass<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Civil rights leaders have denounced Trump\u2019s action in D.C. as an unjustified distraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis president campaigned on \u2018law and order,\u2019 but he is the president of chaos and corruption,\u201d said NAACP President Derrick Johnson. \u201cThere\u2019s no emergency in D.C., so why would he deploy the National Guard? To distract us from his alleged inclusion in the Epstein files? To rid the city of unhoused people? D.C. has the right to govern itself. It doesn\u2019t need this federal coup.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Associated Press writer River Zhang contributed reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"MATT<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>MATT BROWN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown covers national politics, federal policy and democracy issues for The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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President Trump has activated 800 National Guard members to address what he calls a crime emergency in Washington, D.C. Some residents are reacting. (AP Video: River Zhang) BY\u00a0\u00a0MATT BROWN Updated 8:30 AM PDT, August 12, 2025 (APNews.com) \u25b6 Follow live updates on President Donald Trump and his administration WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43284,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43283\/revisions\/43284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}