Blue metropolis mayors past D.C. decry Trump’s takeover threats : NPR

When President Trump introduced his plans to mobilize Washington, D.C.’s Nationwide Guard and take management of town’s native police power, he instructed that different liberal-leaning cities could possibly be subsequent.

“You have a look at Chicago, how unhealthy it’s. You have a look at Los Angeles, how unhealthy it’s,” Trump stated Monday. “We have now different cities which are very unhealthy. New York has an issue. After which you’ve got, after all, Baltimore and Oakland. We do not even point out that anymore — they’re up to now gone. … We’re not going to lose our cities over this, and this can go additional.”

The mayors of these cities — all of whom are Black and Democrats — have pushed again towards Trump in current days, pointing to information that exhibits crime is down of their communities.

“I believe it is very notable that every one of many cities known as out by the president has a Black mayor, and most of these cities are seeing historic lows in violent crime,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott informed CNN. “The president may be taught from us as a substitute of throwing issues at us.”

Oakland, Calif., Mayor Barbara Lee and New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams have declared they won’t permit federal legislation enforcement to take over their cities.

“We’re not going to permit a army occupation of town,” Lee informed ABC7. “That is a part of [Trump’s] effort to dismantle democracy, to militarize cities the place individuals reside, which he doesn’t acknowledge, perceive or see.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says Trump would not have the authority to federalize native legislation enforcement within the first place.

“He’s frightening on sending federal troops, the Nationwide Guard, into cities to plunder them, although these entities would not have policing energy,” Johnson stated. “They cannot even do the very factor that he claims that he desires them to do.”

Authorized consultants agree. Rick Hills, a professor of legislation at New York College College of Regulation, informed NPR that Trump “can’t repeat what he is doing in some other cities” — however speaking about it scores political factors for each side.

“Simply as Trump, for public relations causes, likes to make a giant noise about taking on cities, so too mayors in blue cities prefer to make a giant noise about resisting Trump,” Hills says. “Each are vote-getters for his or her respective constituencies.”

White Home assistant press secretary Taylor Rogers informed NPR over e-mail that all the cities Trump talked about “are thought-about to be a few of the most harmful cities in America.”

“So, as a substitute of criticizing the President’s actions to Make DC Secure Once more, Democrat-run cities affected by violent crime ought to give attention to cleansing up their very own streets,” Rogers added. “For this reason Democrats proceed to be so unpopular amongst on a regular basis People — they suppose the President of the US cracking down on crime in our nation’s capital is a foul factor.”

Whereas most elected officers in D.C. have been publicly important of Trump’s legislation enforcement takeover of their metropolis, some leaders and locals have embraced it or been extra restrained of their criticism.

Whereas D.C. is exclusive, civil rights teams warn of a broader menace

Trump has much more energy over D.C. than he does over different cities.

That is as a result of D.C. is a “federally created and managed metropolis,” Hills explains. The 1973 Residence Rule Act gave D.C. its restricted type of self-governance whereas retaining sure powers for Congress and the president.

Amongst them, the president controls D.C.’s Nationwide Guard and might use the D.C. police power for “federal functions” if he determines there are “particular situations of an emergency nature,” although he wants authorization from Congress to take action for greater than 30 days.

That is not the case wherever else within the U.S., Hills says.

“Different cities are the creatures of state legislation, and there is a long-standing constitutional doctrine of state autonomy that bars the commandeering of state enforcement personnel for federal functions,” he explains.

For example, governors have management over their state guards. However presidents can federalize state guards in an emergency, as Trump did when he deployed the Nationwide Guard to reply to immigration protests in Los Angeles in June — a controversial transfer whose legality is now being examined in federal court docket.

Civil rights teams warn that Trump’s long-running threats to federalize D.C. may have implications far past the nation’s capital, even when the administration’s playbook varies amongst states.

Maya Wiley, the president and CEO of the Management Convention on Civil and Human Rights, stated in a press release that Trump’s actions in D.C. are “one other beta take a look at for nationwide authoritarian management.” Monica Hopkins, the manager director of the American Civil Liberties Union of District of Columbia, known as it “a menace that ought to concern everybody throughout the nation.”

“Congress and the president goal D.C. as a result of they will form of take a stand right here,” Hopkins informed NPR simply earlier than Trump’s Monday announcement. “But it surely actually is a testing floor for what they may try in some other jurisdiction.”

All of the mayors Trump focused are Black

As in D.C., the mayors of Baltimore, New York, Oakland, Los Angeles and Chicago are all Black, which Trump’s critics see as no coincidence.

In her assertion criticizing Trump’s “hostile takeover” in D.C., Wiley accused the administration of “scapegoating Black and Brown individuals,” noting that they make up a giant share of town’s inhabitants.

Savannah, Ga., Mayor Van R. Johnson II, the president of the African American Mayors Affiliation (AAMA), stated in a press release that D.C. and different cities throughout the nation have made progress in public security, due to collaboration amongst mayors, police and neighborhood members.

“Whereas challenges stay, the portrayal of widespread unrest doesn’t align with the truth on the bottom and dangers distracting from the actual work being carried out to maintain our neighborhoods secure,” Johnson stated.

Crime is down within the cities Trump talked about

Trump cited “uncontrolled” crime as the premise for his actions in D.C., despite the fact that violent crime reached a 30-year low in 2024 and is down 26% from this time final yr, based on information from D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Division.

“Now, if the precedence is to point out power in an American metropolis, we all know he can do this right here,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser informed MSNBC over the weekend. “But it surely will not be as a result of there is a spike in crime.”

The mayors of the opposite cities on Trump’s listing say their crime charges have dropped as nicely.

In Baltimore, for instance, Scott stated homicides are down 28% this yr, the bottom degree of any yr on report. Moreover, native police information confirms that violent crime is down 17% from this time final yr and property crimes are down 13%.

“Relating to public security in Baltimore, [Trump] ought to flip off the right-wing propaganda and have a look at the info,” Scott stated. “Baltimore is the most secure it has been in over 50 years.”

In California, Lee stated total crime in Oakland is down 28% from final yr, whereas a Los Angeles Police Division report launched in July stated town is on tempo for its lowest murder whole in practically 60 years.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass acknowledged that despite the fact that statistics present an enchancment, it is also true that folks could not really feel secure on a regular basis — however stated that sending in federal legislation enforcement will not be the way in which to unravel that.

“You do different issues to assist make them really feel secure,” she informed CNN. “You do not use the army to assist individuals really feel higher.”

Mayors say they’d welcome federal assist with violence prevention

Whereas mayors are stressing that crime is underneath management, a lot of them say there’s extra the federal authorities can do to assist — simply not in the way in which Trump is suggesting.

In Chicago, the place police information exhibits that the crime price has gone down by 15% in contrast with 2023, Johnson hailed town’s “historic progress,” saying town drove down homicides by greater than 30% in two years and lowered shootings by nearly 40% within the final yr.

On the identical time, he stated he realized final week that Trump reduce $158 million in funding for violence prevention packages in cities together with Chicago. He famous how this yr the Trump administration dismantled the White Home Workplace of Gun Violence Prevention and terminated over $800 million in grants for violence prevention packages throughout the US.

“If President Trump desires to assist make Chicago safer, he can begin by releasing the funds for anti-violence packages which have been important to our work to drive down crime and violence,” he wrote.

Adams in New York says what’s wanted is federal gun management laws, not Nationwide Guard intervention. After telling reporters that homicides and shootings are down, as are “all the most important crime classes” within the subway system, he acknowledged that town continues to be reeling from a capturing at a Midtown Manhattan workplace constructing that killed 4 individuals.

The shooter was legally in a position to purchase and produce an automated weapon throughout the nation regardless of recognized psychological well being points, Adams stated, “so there’s some help we will get from the federal authorities.”

Johnson, the AAMA president, informed CNN that mayors throughout the nation wish to accomplice with the federal authorities to deal with points akin to human, drug and gun trafficking, together with sharing finest practices and funding. However that is not what’s taking place now, he stated.

“That is definitely not a partnership as we might see it — that is one thing completely totally different,” he added.