President Donald Trump’s ordered crackdown on crime in Washington, D.C., has led to hundreds of arrests across the city as federal agents and the D.C. National Guard are providing extra manpower to the understaffed Metropolitan Police Department and other agencies.
“52 arrests were made last night, including an MS-13 gang member, and 9 firearms were taken off the streets,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Tuesday. “Since our mission began, there have been a total of 465 arrests, 68 guns seized, and charges for homicide, narcotics, and firearm offenses,”
Bondi noted that around half of the arrests occurred in the city’s crime-ridden neighborhoods, debunking the narrative spun by critics that the deployment has been only for show. While crime is more prevalent in certain areas, tourist and high-end areas have seen an increase in criminal activity in the years since the BLM riots, the “defund the police” movement, and the city’s soft-on-crime policies.
Most the DC locals who spoke with Blaze Media last week said they support Trump’s crackdown.
Trump’s deployment has also resulted in the many homeless encampments being removed from sidewalks and public areas.
“The extra help in D.C. has been extremely helpful, especially for backup purposes when dealing with dangerous offenders on the street. However, we are not looking forward to what will happen when this emergency order is lifted,” U.S. Park Police FOP Chairman Ken Spencer told Blaze News.
The U.S Park Police patrols national monuments and parks in D.C., New York City, and the San Francisco Bay area. Despite being responsible for patrolling high-traffic areas around our nation’s monuments, the department has been struggling with decades-long manpower and retention issues. Spencer has been urging Congress to raise pay and benefits for officers.
“Our staffing has dipped below 500 sworn officers nationwide, and we have begged [Interior Secretary Doug] Burgum to help our retention problem. This is not sustainable; the crime and homeless problem in the city will return quickly if the Trump administration does not push Congress to pass H.R 1260 — the U.S. Park Police Modernization Act,” Spencer continued.
The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department is likewise understaffed by hundreds of officers.
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DC National Guard Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The department’s police union reported that in just the first full week since the deployment, multiple major crimes such as robbery and carjackings have already decreased by double digits.
“While federal assistance gives us a boost, we must repeal the misguided Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Act in order to make these changes permanent,” the union added.
Most of the D.C. locals who spoke with Blaze News last week said they support Trump’s crackdown because the crime rate was still too high to be considered acceptable.
One of the residents who did not approve of Trump’s plan compared the president to Adolf Hitler, adding that extra police was unnecessary.
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