Still Under Occupation
Some thoughts on the continued deployment of the National Guard in DC
When I heard the news on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving about two West Virginia National Guard members being shot in downtown DC, I had two thoughts. First, what an absolute tragedy for the two young people and their families. And second, how was this not going to become a pretext for an even bigger National Guard presence in DC? Both turned out to be true. One person is dead, the other likely to suffer from lifelong injuries. And 500 more Guard troops are now in DC, bringing the total to somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,400 with units from DC, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Some of these deployments will end later this month. Guard members from Alaska are expected to arrive in March.
The area where the incident happened is just a few blocks from where I worked for nearly 25 years and it’s not a place where I ever worried about my safety. It is busy with office workers and a few tourists on their way to the White House; the park at Farragut Square is a place where folks eat their lunch and participate in twice a week yoga in the evenings when the weather is nice and movie screenings in the summer. I can’t imagine how dull it must have been for these soldiers to stand around at the Farragut West Metro entrance for hours on end.
Now because one clearly deranged individual decided to drive across the country with a handgun, an attack that under any circumstance would be impossible to stop, we have even more troops deployed to our city. DC National Guard (who have no law enforcement training) are now conducting joint patrols with the Metropolitan Police (MPD) ostensibly for their protection, diverting these MPD personnel from other duties. And this is to say nothing of changes in immigration policy that cast blame on tens of thousands of individuals whose only crime is to be from the same general part of the world as the perpetrator. But I digress.
Do I feel safer? Absolutely not. In fact, it’s not clear at all what the National Guard troops are actually doing when they are hanging around Metro stops and other public places. When I was in Union Station the week before the shooting, I stopped to engage the DC National Guard members who were posted at the top of the Metro escalator. When I asked what they were up to on a sleepy Saturday afternoon, they admitted that there was nothing for them to do. On weekdays, they noted that there are often groups of teenagers going to and from school who sometimes get in fights. What a reason to spend hundreds of millions in tax dollars to cover the cost of these soldiers being away from home, work, and their families.
I’m not the only one confused about what the Guard is actually doing and how they are contributing to public safety. If you look at the official website, the scant text mentions beautification, high-visibility patrols, and traffic control. But it’s hard to connect the dots. At a recent meeting of my advisory neighborhood commission (a hyper local governmental body that normally is consumed with zoning and liquor licenses), high-ranking officers from the MPD had been invited to share with the public. They noted ongoing cooperation with federal law enforcement partners (such as Park Police, uniformed Secret Service, Drug Enforcement Administration etc.), but no one could answer what the National Guard was up to, other than noting that all Guard members are deputized as U.S. Marshals. In fact, the highest ranking officer at the meeting said that if the ANC wanted to know what the National Guard was up to, they should invite the Guard to their next meeting. Wow.
Earlier this year, DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb successfully sued to prevent the takeover of DC police by the federal government but his case regarding deployment of the Guard is still pending. The lawsuit argues that the deployment violates the Home Rule Act. A U.S. district court judge ruled in DC’s favor, noting that while the President has unique powers because DC is not a state, he can’t unilaterally deploy the D.C. National Guard to help with crime control as he sees fit or call in troops from other states. This case is making its way up the food chain with the U.S. Court of Appeals most recently saying that the deployment can continue at least temporarily, pending another appeals court decision that will presumably go to the merits.
Cases affecting Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in California, Illinois, and Oregon are still slowly wending their way through the courts. While it’s not clear how the Supreme Court might eventually rule in these instances, my guess that DC, without the protection of statehood, is likely to lose. Ironic isn’t it that when there was a real threat to public safety on January 6, 2020, Trump rebuffed DC’s plea to activate the Guard. Both scenarios point to weaknesses in our democracy. In the mean time, it seems that all we get is thoughts and prayers.
I know that you have tried to steer away from politics with your blog and I appreciate that because I need a break now and then. But this was important to share with those of us, especially in the Northeast, who live in a bubble. I recall travelling to other countries where men roam streets and guard certain places wielding guns. As an American, this always felt shocking. Now, its the scenario in certain US cities.