Thousands protest for a ‘Free DC’ on the fourth week of federal control in Washington
Washington – Thousands of demonstrators crossed Washington, DC on Saturday in one of the biggest demonstrations against the federal takeover of President Donald Trump in the national capital.
Behind a bright red banner reading “End the DC Occupation” in English and Spanish, the demonstrators marched two kilometers from Meridian Hill Park in Freedom Plaza near the White House to rail against the fourth week of the Troops of the National Guard and Federal Agents Potrol in the streets of DC.
The “We Are All DC” demonstration – gathered by local defenders of Home Rule and the American Civil Liberties Union – was perhaps the most organized demonstration against Trump’s federal intervention in Washington. The president justified action last month as a means of fighting crime and homelessness in the city, even if city officials noted that violent crimes are lower than in Trump’s first mandate.
Trump targeted DC after deploying the National Guard in Los Angeles earlier this summer while the administration intensified its efforts to apply immigration and tried to repress the demonstrations. The White House then turned to Washington, which presented a unique opportunity for Trump to push its difficult program on crime because of its subordinate status to the federal government.
The presence of armed military officers in the streets put Washington on board and stimulated weeks of demonstrations, especially in DC districts. Trump’s emergency declaration that took charge of DC police is expected to expire on Wednesday.
Mark Fitzpatrick, a former American diplomat who has been a resident of DC for about a decade, told the Associated Press on Saturday that he was worried about “authoritarian nature” in which the administration deals with
“The federal agents, the national guards patrolling our streets, is really an affront to the democracy of our city,” he said, adding that it is worse for DC residents because of their lack of federal representation. “We do not have our own senators or members of the House of Representatives, so we are at the mercy of a dictator like this, a disagreement dictator.”
Among the demonstrators on Saturday, there were also former DC residents like Tammy Price, who called the Trump administration “badly” and “not for the people”.
Jun Lee, an engraving artist living in Washington, presented herself with a “free DC” sign that she made on a block of engraving. She said that she had come to the demonstration because she was “saddened and with a broken heart” of the impact of the federal intervention on her city.
“It’s my house, and I never, never thought everything I looked at in a story documentary that I really live in person, and that’s why it is important for everyone, it’s our house, we have to fight, we have to resist,” she said.
Also on Saturday, Trump repeated threats to add Chicago to the list of other cities led by Democrats whom he wishes to target for an enlarged federal application. Its administration should intensify the application of immigration to Chicago, similar to what happened in Los Angeles, and to deploy troops of the National Guard. Like the District of Columbia, the recent data on Chicago crime do not reflect the war areas to which Trump has compared it several times.
Violent crimes in Chicago have dropped considerably in the first half, which represents the most steep drop over a decade, according to city data. The shots fell 37%and the homicides dropped by 32%, while total violent crime fell by more than 22%.
In response to the threats of Trump, the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, a democrat, described the president as “budding dictator”, who “threatens to go to war with an American city”.
“It’s not a joke,” wrote Pritzker on X. “It’s not normal.”
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Amiri reported in New York.
