The news gets worse.
This week the president announced that he was seizing control of the Washington, D.C. police force “to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor and worse. This is liberation day in D.C.”
Blatantly ignoring the facts about how crime rates have dropped markedly in Washington, Trump declared a public safety emergency there, saying that it was “one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world.” He invoked section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act, which allows the president to take over the Washington police for up to 30 days without the consent of Congress. That provision of the law has never been invoked before.
The president said that 800 National Guard troops would be deployed in the city. FBI agents will patrol the streets. “Crime, savagery, filth, and scum will disappear,” said Trump. He suggested that he might take over the police in other cities like Chigago, too.
The “scum” Trump was referring to were evidently not politicians or lobbyists but may have been the homeless, who particularly offended him. He said the capital had been overtaken by “roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people.” On Sunday, after being driven to his golf club, he posted a diatribe on social media, saying, “The homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY.”
Numerous news organizations noted that violent crime in Washington, D.C. is at a 30-year low.
This news made me wonder what it must be like to live in Washington right now. It reminded me of what Provincetown Police Lieutenant Greg Hennick said when he was promoted to chief last May. He talked about how, at a meeting of his department, he had addressed the rising level of fear in the community after Trump’s return to power.
“There’s a lot of fear,” said Hennick, “not just in our community but worldwide — so I said, let’s be sure to recognize this fear in the community and be a lot more patient and understanding with people, because there’s going to be a lot of strong feelings people are dealing with.”
Hennick talked about the powerful symbolism involved in law enforcement. “We have a badge, we have a uniform — we’re the most visible part of government,” he said. “We need to adjust our tone and our response to give people a different impression of what law enforcement is and what the Provincetown Police Dept. is.”
I’m struck by the differences between the ways these two chiefs talk about government, law enforcement, and the community. Trump says he’s fighting bloodthirsty criminals, maniacs, filth, and scum. Hennick talks about people needing extra patience and understanding because they feel afraid — not of violent criminals but of their own government.
Discussing the possibility of having to deal with protests, Chief Hennick said, “We try to stay as respectful as possible — because people have First Amendment rights.”
Trump, the president of the United States, said he would tell the police to “do whatever the hell they want.”
