President Donald Trump is placing Washington, D.C., law enforcement under federal control.
“This is ‘Liberation Day’ in D.C.,” Trump told the press in a Monday briefing, “and we’re going to take our capital back.”
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs, and homeless people,” he continued, “and we’re not going to let it happen anymore.”
The Home Rule Act of 1973 allows the president to assume temporary control over the city’s police department in an emergency. The president said he signed an executive order Monday morning declaring an emergency in the nation’s capital.
“I determine that special conditions of an emergency nature exist that require the use of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (Metropolitan Police force) for Federal purposes, including maintaining law and order in the Nation’s seat of Government; protecting Federal buildings, national monuments, and other Federal property; and ensuring conditions necessary for the orderly functioning of the Federal Government,” the executive order reads.
Trump said he is “deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order, and public safety in Washington, DC, and they’re going to be allowed to do their job properly.”
He signed a second executive order mobilizing the District of Columbia National Guard “to address the epidemic of crime in our Nation’s capital.”
Trump said he would also “bring in the military if needed,” though he doubts it will be.
“I don’t think we’ll need it,” he said. “So many great people, including the people that are in the police department, with proper leadership, they’ll immediately begin massive enforcement operations targeting known gangs, drug dealers and criminal networks, to get them the hell off the street, maybe get them out of the country, because a lot of them came into our country illegally.”
Trump said Attorney General Pam Bondi would oversee the police force takeover.
“Let me be crystal clear, crime in D.C. is ending and ending today,” Bondi said. “We are going to use every power we have to find criminals here.”
Jeanine Pirro, newly sworn in as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said the Trump administration would target “no cash” bail and low juvenile prosecution rates.
“I can’t touch you if you’re 14, 15, 16, 17 years-old and you have a gun,” she said. “I convict someone of shooting another person with an illegal gun on a public bus in the chest, intent to kill. I convict him. And you know what the judge gives him? Probation. Says, ‘You should go to college.’ We need to go after the D.C. counsel and their absurd laws.”
This is a breaking news story. Check back soon for more details.
