WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump has declared a crime emergency in the nation's capital and vowed to make its streets safe again for both residents and visitors.
In an Executive Order he signed on Monday, Trump said he is placing Washington, DC's police department under direct federal control.
Invoking the President's authority under the District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act, he required the city mayor to make the services of the Metropolitan Police Department available to the President.
The Order delegates this authority to the Attorney General, who will also monitor the emergency conditions and provide regular updates to the President on the status of the emergency.
'Washington, D.C., should be one of the safest, cleanest and most beautiful cities anywhere in the world, and we're going to make it that,' Trump said during a press conference at the White House. 'We're going to make it safe; we're going to make it smart; we're going to make it beautiful.'
The National Guard will play a role in that effort, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after the president issued a memorandum to mobilize the D.C. National Guard.
Hegseth said the mobilization will become operational under Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, and guard members will be deployed in the streets of Washington in the coming week.
Approximately 800 soldiers were activated on Monday as part of the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, with about 100-200 of them supporting law enforcement. Duties for those personnel include administrative and logistical roles, as well as providing a physical presence in support of law enforcement.
'We will work alongside all D.C. police and federal law enforcement to ensure this city is safe [and] this city is beautiful,' Hegseth said.
According to a White House fact sheet, two embassy staffers were murdered in Washington in May. A congressional intern was shot and killed near the White House in June, and on August 3, a federal employee was beaten by a mob.
A White House executive order reports that the 2024 murder rate in the District of Columbia was 27.54 per 100,000 residents, and the vehicle theft rate was at 842.4 thefts per 100,000 residents. More than three times the national average, the District ranks among the most dangerous cities globally.
'It's becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness in Washington,' the president said. 'Caravans of ... youth rampage through city streets at all times of the day. They're on ATVs, motorbikes - they travel pretty well. Entire neighborhoods are now under emergency curfews.'
The White House said that the city government's failure to control crime has forced the diversion of critical resources, hampering the Federal government's ability to operate efficiently.
The Democratic mayor of the District of Columbia, Muriel Bowser called the move 'unsettling and unprecedented'. Addressing a news conference Monday, Bowser said she believes Trump's view of DC was 'shaped by his Covid-era experience during his first term' when crime rate increased.
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