#dcstatehood — Public Fediverse posts

D.C. has its issues, but armed soldiers from other states won’t solve them

After a week and change of wondering when a trip in or out of the D.C. would treat me to the sight of President Trump’s Aug. 11 decision to summon National Guard troops from the rest of the nation to serve as political props around the District, a Bikeshare commute for an event Tuesday provided visible proof: soldiers walking around Lafayette Square.

They were picking up trash.

Going to Union Station Friday afternoon provided a few more reminders: five soldiers, armed with pistols, standing on the upper level of Metro Center (one flashed a thumbs-up for a news photographer), and three outside Union Station, outnumbered by veterans under a tent with signs reminding current servicemembers of their duty to the Constitution.

I asked the three where they were from: Louisiana. After a bit of banter about the weather, I said I hoped they could get home to their families soon.

That’s not because I think the D.C. has crime1 solved–although it is down significantly across the city–but because soldiers are not the way to solve it. Law enforcement is not military service, those two professions have profoundly different missions and rules, and U.S. law has long prohibited using soldiers as cops for sound reasons.

The governors of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia who sent National Guard units to the District should know this, because multiple cities in their states have higher crime rates than D.C. If deploying armed National Guardsmen and women in urban areas helped stop murders, those governors would have done it already with a much smaller travel budget.

But sending a large contingent of soldiers carrying weapons into D.C. in particular does something else: advertise the president’s ability to treat my neighbors across the Potomac as subjects. While it seems clear that Trump broke the law when he sent National Guard units into Los Angeles without the permission of California’s government, the law expressly gives the president control of the D.C. National Guard, with zero input allowed to the District’s government.

Trump may think this show of force makes me nervous. If so, he’s wrong. It makes me angry. And it makes me even more convinced that the only way to end the abuse of power that Congress has also repeatedly enjoyed at the expense of the taxpaying people of D.C. is statehood for the people of D.C.

1. My most direct experience of crime in D.C. came in February of 1996, when I was mugged at gunpoint on the sidewalk in front of my apartment building just off Connecticut Avenue. I had maybe $30 in my wallet; I then made far more than that by selling a moderately overwrought essay about the experience to the Post, a journalistic business model that I cannot recommend anybody try to repeat. ↩︎

#DC_ #DCStatehood #DistrictOfColumbia #militarized #NationalGuard #statehoodNow #TrumpNationalGuard #TrumpOccupation #Washington

"'We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city,' Bowser said at a press conference. 'The difference between this 20-day period of this federal surge and last year represents an 87% reduction in carjackings.'"
I had some vague hope the mayor might have learned something from her handling of the criminal justice reform bill. I guess I thought that maybe her support for #DCStatehood actually meant something.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/muriel-bowser-trump-dc-takeover_n_68af528ce4b0bbcc3f8daa71 #DCPolitics

Free DC is holding a press conference and rally tomorrow morning in response to Trump's new attack on DC. Monday, Aug 11, 10am, 815 16th St NW.
https://freedcproject.org/event-list/dc-is-our-home-trump-cant-have-it #DCPolitics #DCStatehood

"DC Residents Still Have No Vote in Congress" (blog) https://markstoneman.com/2024/11/03/dc-residents-still.html #DCstatehood #TaxationWithoutRepresentation #DC

I got the mailer. We're all used to DC candidates talking about being native Washingtonians. This one has that for Eugene Kinlow and "fifth-generation" for Linda Gray, but the headline of "Rooted in the District of Columbia" really takes it to a new level when running against people with names like Ankit Jain and Oye Owolewa. #DCision24 #DCElections #DCStatehood

DC shadow senator Paul Strauss is chair of a new PAC, DC Statehood Leadership Committee, which is sending out mailers supporting Eugene Kinlow (running for the open shadow senator seat) and Linda Gray (running for shadow representative). Yet another reason to vote for Ankit Jain and Oye Owolewa.
https://efiling.ocf.dc.gov/Disclosure/FilingHistory/16329 #DCElections #DCision24 #DCStatehood

DC shadow senator Mike Brown has a fundamental misunderstanding of what his job is. He supposed to support #DCStatehood, not denounce the #DCCouncil and the voters for being too liberal and soft on crime. It may be a meaningless office, but I hope someone decent runs against him next year. #DCPolitics #DCision24

Good work from @JLGDC responding to Jake Tapper and pointing out that the discussion of the criminal code reform bill in the media is based on Republican misrepresentations. Too bad Tapper threw in that bit about prosecutors at the end without mentioning that the prosecutors are federal and the DC government and voters have no control over them. #DCCouncil #DCStatehood #DCPolitics
https://twitter.com/TheLeadCNN/status/1632900452017659905

This is depressing. The first time in decades that Congress has directly blocked a law passed by our local government in DC. It would probably be happening regardless, but maybe not in such a high-profile way if our mayor hadn't given him cover and endorsed the Republican propaganda about the bill. #DCStatehood #DCPolitics #DCCouncil

@MommaMia1217

#DCStatehood
#DemocracyFirst
#ExpandTheCourt
#ExpandSCOTUS

It's long past time we make DC a state. Don't you agree?
#DCStatehood
#DemocracyFirst

In 1992, when Congress forced DC to hold a referendum on bringing back the death penalty, #DCCouncil Chair John Wilson told people to vote against it, even though he supported the death penalty. He opposed congressional interference in DC's local laws. All DC elected officials ought to be willing to stand up for #DCStatehood and to say #HandsOffDC.

You had one job, Shadow Senator Brown. Maybe you're following the mayor's lead, but you were elected specifically to advocate for #DCStatehood and against this sort of intervention, not to insult the #DCCouncil in the media and give support to congressional enemies of self-government.
https://www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2023/02/15/dc-lacks-plan-to-fight-against-congress-overturning-its-laws

@rbreich If only I had a senator. #DCStatehood #TaxationWithoutRepresentation

Time for a belated introduction!

I'm a medievalist, teaching graduate Medieval Latin courses in the DC area and paleography virtually and IRL (e.g. for HMML and in workshops).

I'm currently working on an open-access Latin paleography textbook and also writing a novel about nuns and archaeologists. I have high hopes that procrastinating on one of those projects will result in finishing the other, or vice-versa.

Since 2010, most of my work in DC has been in historic preservation, with a focus on the architecture and development of DC's neighborhoods. A lot of my energy over in the other place was devoted to local DC matters—yelling about statehood, yelling at District agencies, following weather and traffic, etc. I expect I will remain there for those purposes as long as those functions continue.

#paleography #medievaldons #medieval #manuscripts #nuns #womenreligious #benedictines #archaeology #dchistory #dcstatehood #historicpreservation #preservation