Aug. 13 — US National Guard troops have begun appearing on the streets of Washington DC, a day after President Donald Trump deployed the troops to the city and took control of its police force as he argued violent crime was out of control.
Armoured vehicles were spotted at urban centres and tourist sites around the US capital on Tuesday evening.
Officials have said that 800 National Guard troops are expected to be deployed, as well as 500 federal law enforcement agents.
Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, who has denied crime is out of control in her city, described the troop deployment as an “authoritarian push”.
Trump, a Republican, has also threatened similar deployments against New York and Chicago, two other Democratic-controlled cities.
The camouflaged troops have been trickling into the US capital since Trump’s announcement on Monday.
They have been seen erecting barricades outside several government buildings, and taking photos with tourists.
Twenty-three people were arrested by federal agents on Monday night, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. The agents are aiding local law enforcement.
She said the arrests were for homicide, gun offences, drug dealing, lewd acts, stalking, reckless driving, and other crimes.
“This is only the beginning,” said Leavitt.
“Over the course of the next month, the Trump administration will relentlessly pursue and arrest every violent criminal in the District who breaks the law, undermines public safety, and endangers law-abiding Americans.”
FBI Director Kash Patel later said FBI agents were involved in around half of those arrests.
Both the mayor of Washington and the city’s police chief said earlier in the day they shared the same goal as the federal agents.
“What I’m focused on is the federal surge and how to make the most of the federal officers that we have,” Bowser said after a meeting on Tuesday with US Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said: “We know that we have to get illegal guns off of our streets, and if we have this influx of enhanced presence, we know that it’s going to make our city even better.”
But at a town hall on Tuesday night, the mayor sharpened her criticism of Trump.
Bowser called on community members to “protect our city, to protect our autonomy, to protect our home rule and get to the other side of this guy and make sure we elect a Democratic House so that we have a backstop to this authoritarian push”, according to the New York Times.
