More on the Federal Intervention in D.C.

I am going to stick with the topic of the federal intervention in Washington, D.C. This is a topic that affects me personally and, depending on how things go, could be an important harbinger of America's future. The big question that I have is, "what is the end game?" Even while additional National Guard units arrive from red states, cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump is already declaring victory. If he has already made the city safe, as he says, then what is the need for additional troops? What are Trump's goals and when will this operation end? It is really remarkable that there are no answers for such basic questions.

Trump, perhaps more than any other figure, is the perfect personification of the joke, "How do you know that he is lying? Because his lips are moving." Trump lives in his own reality — another indication of his cognitive impairment that I feel is necessary to continually mention. One of the biggest giveaways that he is going to tell a lie is when he begins a story by describing someone who approaches him and addresses him as "sir". Often this is a big, strong man who is in tears, but not always. In Trump's latest imaginary conversation, it was actually Democrats. During a press availability with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump claimed that "Democrats are calling me up and they're saying 'sir, I want to thank you. My wife and I went out to dinner last night for the first time in four years and Washington, D.C. is safe." Appearing on Fox News, Trump claimed, "I have friends that say they're going out to dinner. Did you see what's happening with the restaurants? They're bursting."

In fact, as Dana Bash noted on CNN, "Open Table, which is where a lot of people make their reservations. They are reporting a 25 to 30 percent drop in D.C. restaurant reservations. This is since Trump's announcement of federalizing the D.C. police." Yesterday, the Washington Post published an article titled, "‘The city is dead’: D.C. restaurant reservations drop amid federal crackdown". The article quoted a number of local restaurant owners describing significant drops in diners. Referring to the co-founder of Mt. Pleasant's Elle, the article said, "The numbers suggest, he added, that this will be the slowest August in Elle’s seven-year history, including during the pandemic-affected summer of 2020." The co-founder was quoted as saying, "Seeing law enforcement — armored and plainclothed — in the neighborhood, casing our building and looking into our windows definitely put guests and staff on edge." Mauricio Fraga-Rosenfeld, co-owner of El Secreto de Rosita on U Street, said, "The city is dead. If you walk on the street, there’s no feeling. People are scared … You don’t see any Latinos on the street."

Beyond causing D.C. residents to stay home, it is not clear what the federal intervention is actually accomplishing. As I have repeatedly noted, the federal personnel have largely been confined to low-crime areas and mostly concentrating on arresting immigrants and clearing tent encampments. The federal government has done little to demonstrate what has actually been done. The Department of Justice periodically releases statements listing the number of arrests, guns seized, and the types of crimes for which individuals have been detained. However, the data is not very detailed and lacks transparency. For instance, such a fundamental question as whether the data includes arrests by the Metropolitan Police Department is unanswered. Nor is data provided regarding trends or year-over-year comparisons. This makes it nearly impossible to evaluate the data. As Martin Austermuhle of The 51st noted on X, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that there have been 68 illegal guns seized during the federal intervention. Based on figures provided by Austermuhle, this is essentially a normal number of guns seized during such a time period by the MPD. It is also important to note that even before Trump sent in the federal officers, members of the U.S. Marshals and the Federal Bureau of Investigation made arrests within D.C., working closely with the MPD. It would be good to know how many of the arrests touted by Bondi are above the normal number that might have been made before the intervention.

On the topic of guns, there was a bizarre revelation last night involving the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro. Many might not realize that D.C. does not have the authority to prosecute most local crimes. Adult crimes, and many violent crimes committed by juveniles, are prosecuted by U.S. attorneys appointed by the President. This is one of the ironies of the claims that D.C. is soft on crime. It has been U.S. attorneys who have refused to prosecute or accepted pleas for lower sentences for those arrested for crimes in the District. District residents have had no say in the matter. This is how we ended up with a former television judge from Fox News as our lead prosecutor. The Washington Post revealed that Pirro has ordered her staff "not to seek felony charges against people who are carrying rifles or shotguns" in the District. Current D.C. law prohibits people from carrying rifles or shotguns outside their homes or businesses without a permit. Pirro has essentially instructed prosecutors to ignore that law. It would be interesting to see what happens if anti-ICE protesters begin showing up to protests carrying AR-15s. I suspect that federal agents, already too afraid to show their faces, would not be pleased. I also suspect that we would quickly see a change of policy by Pirro.

One thing that is clear is that residents of the District generally do not support the federal deployment. The roadblocks set up by federal and MPD officers are routinely met by protesters. Yesterday, a group of federal agents was chased out of Columbia Heights. Today, the Washington Post published the results of a poll of District residents that showed that nearly 80% of the residents oppose the takeover. More people see Trump as the biggest problem facing the District than see crime as the most important issue. The survey found that "Nearly 9 in 10 Washingtonians say their neighborhood is an excellent or good place to live, including 46 percent who say it’s ‘excellent.’" This and other reporting have highlighted that Black residents of the District often fear being the targets of increased federal law enforcement activity. In addition, some Black residents, particularly among the poor, are suspicious that the ultimate goal might be to remove them from the District entirely so that they can be replaced by wealthier White residents.

Yesterday, there was another development involving Pirro. She announced a criminal probe into whether the MPD has been manipulating data to make crime statistics appear lower. This has been a frequent allegation recently made by, among others, Trump. Two days ago, Trump "truthed" on his social media network, Truth Social, that "D.C. gave Fake Crime numbers in order to create a false illusion of safety." To be clear, Trump's statement is an allegation, not a proven fact. As he frequently does, Trump has arrived at a conclusion before an investigation. This, of course, puts the legitimacy of Pirro's investigation in doubt. How willing will she be to arrive at conclusions that contradict what her boss has already determined? That's one of the problems with having a cognitively impaired president. What should be an important, serious, and objective investigation has now been politicized, and its findings will be viewed through partisan political lenses.

The background on this controversy involving statistics is a little complicated. The origins appear to be in a 2020 lawsuit filed against the District by MPD Sergeant Charlotte Djossou. Djossou had a history of filing complaints against the MPD. Beginning in 2015, Djossou began reporting to her superiors that MPD officers were engaging in inappropriate racial targeting of Black residents. In 2019, she reported other police misconduct, including wrongly classifying crimes in order to manipulate statistics. In October 2020, Djossou filed a lawsuit against the MPD for retaliating against her due to her reports that young Black men were being illegally targeted for arrest. The lawsuit also included allegations about the MPD manipulating crime statistics. The D.C. Police Union has also been collecting data to support allegations that crime data was being manipulated. While Djossou's lawsuit had primarily been about alleged retaliation against her, by this time there was more interest in what she had said about crime statistics manipulation. Many seized upon her claims to support their argument that statistics were being faked. Perhaps in reaction to the Union’s allegations, the MPD began an internal investigation. Djossou's lawsuit was recently settled.

According to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, MPD Chief Pamela Smith investigated all seven of the city’s police districts to see if crime data had been manipulated. As a result of her findings, one commander, Michael Pulliam, was placed on leave. He was accused of "allegedly making changes to crime statistics in his district." Pulliam had commanded the 3rd District that patrols Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights. Pulliam's suspension came roughly a week after he had filed a complaint against Executive Assistant Chief of Police Andre Wright. Pulliam's wife, Rachel Pulliam, is also an MPD officer who had recently been transferred to a less desirable position. There was fallout from this transfer involving Michael Pulliam which led to his complaint. The result is that Pulliam may have been an irritant for the MPD and, therefore, a convenient scapegoat. An investigation into whether Pulliam was actually responsible for crime data manipulation or just being used as a sacrificial lamb would be helpful and necessary. However, due to Trump's politicalization of this issue, his supporters will believe whatever results are presented while his opponents will be suspicious of the findings.