Members of the Washington, D.C., National Guard have reported for duty across the nation's capital on Aug. 12 under President Donald Trump's orders to fight crime and reduce homelessness in the city.

Among those deployed were members of the Guard's 273rd Military Police Company, whose commanders shared images on social media of armored Humvees parked next to the Washington Monument. Trump ordered 800 members of the guard into service, though not all have yet been deployed.

Trump's decision to deploy the military drew sharp condemnation from Democrats across the country, who said the move raises civil-liberties concerns at a time when crime in D.C. is dropping.

"We're taking our capital back," Trump said on Aug. 11. "We're taking it back."

Because D.C. falls under federal control, the president has the authority to call up the National Guard, and he also ordered that the city's Metropolitan Police Department be brought under Justice Department management. Mayor Muriel Bowser sought to reassure residents, saying that while violent crime remains a problem in the city, the national guard deployment was unnecessary.

"Violent crime in DC is at its lowest level in 30 years. We had an unacceptable spike in 2023, so we changed our laws and strategies," she said at a televised community meeting on August 12. "Now, crime levels are not only down from 2023, but from before the pandemic. Our tactics are working, and we aren’t taking our foot off the gas."

'Physical presence' on DC streets

Bowser said Trump called up the guard for non-law enforcement purposes, indicating they would work in a support role to assist law enforcement officers. White House officials said there would be anywhere from 100 to 200 troops supporting law enforcement at any given time, primarily providing administrative and logistical support, along with a "physical presence" on the streets.

"We will continue to watch for that," Bowser said.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said it would take time for all 800 guard members to move into position across the city.

"You will see them flowing into the streets of Washington in the coming weeks," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at an Aug. 12 news conference. "They will be strong. They will be tough."

Advocates: Tougher enforcement does nothing to solve homelessness

Advocates for homeless people worried that the president's decision to send in troops would make life even harder for the roughly 900 people living on the city's streets.

"We're going to be removing homeless encampments from beautiful parks, which now, a lot of people can't walk on,” Trump told reporters on Aug. 11, adding that his administration is getting "rid of the people from underpasses and public spaces from all over the city."

In a statement, the National Homelessness Law Center said tougher enforcement does nothing to solve homelessness.

"Arresting or ticketing people for sleeping outside makes homelessness worse, wastes taxpayer money, and simply does not work," spokesman Jesse Rabinowitz said. "The solution to homelessness is housing and supports, not handcuffs and jails."

Longtime DC mayor answers questions from city residents

Bowser, the city's leader since 2015, held a virtual sit-down with city residents on Aug. 12 to answer questions and assuage fears. Among comments from residents were concerns that the National Guard will do nothing to stop the influx of guns from nearby states into the city and fears that troops roaming the streets will scare older adults and teenagers into staying inside.

The three-term mayor stood by previous statements that the Metropolitan Police Department has overseen an unprecedented reduction in violent crime and hopes her administration can spin Trump's deployment of the guardsmen into a positive for the city, considering the department is understaffed by several hundred officers.

"Just imagine if we had the number of MPD officers that we should have, if we were at 3,800 instead of 3,100," Bowser said. Police officials are now approaching their deployment strategy to see "how the additional federal police officers can help in some areas."

Kevin Donahue, Bowser’s city administrator, said D.C. would aim to keep the guardsmen near national monuments where people are accustomed to seeing armed forces and would try to have Metro police present wherever the troops are deployed to give residents a more familiar face.

Staff said the largest part of the surge, potentially hundreds of federal troops, would happen overnight when many residents are indoors.

'Every American should be deeply concerned'

Charles Allen, a District council member overseeing the neighbors closest to the Capitol, called the deployment "extreme, outrageous, and dangerous."

"National Guard soldiers are trained for warfare & natural disasters, not for community policing," Allen said in a lengthy thread on social media. "Every American should be deeply concerned with what they’re witnessing today."

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city's longtime non-voting representative in Congress, said Trump based his federal takeover on a "fiction he's pushed since the campaign trail."

"DC has not been 'overtaken by violent gangs' as he said yesterday," Holmes Norton said. "The opposite is true: Crime is the lowest it's been in 30 years."

Residents oppose National Guard deployment

Earlier on Aug. 12, The New York Times reported that members of the National Guard were seen in various areas across D.C., including near the Washington Monument. The troops appeared on the streets and in their military vehicles.

In Anacostia, a historic and predominantly Black neighborhood in southeast D.C., residents told the Times that they opposed Trump’s decision to deploy the military and to place local police under federal control.

"I think it’s very horrible,” Kyvin Battle, 57, told the newspaper. "Because a lot of us who are innocent are going to get caught in the middle of all this."

Residents noted that the crime levels in the city did not justify the federalization of the city's police force, according to the Times and Reuters. Rodney Miller, who has lived in the D.C. area for 50 years, told Reuters that he questioned the need for National Guard troops given lower crime levels now.

Though many residents have expressed disapproval, some have shown support for the president’s decision. While out on a walk with her child on Aug. 12, Rebecca Harkey told Reuters that crime had made her consider leaving the capital and that it was "very much an active fear" in her life.

Local leaders, civil rights activists denounce police takeover

Trump has previously singled out majority Democratic cities such as Baltimore, Chicago, and D.C. — all cities with large Black populations — while speaking about rising crime in urban areas. In response to the president's claims and threats to deploy the military, local leaders have pointed to statistics showing a decline in crime in their cities over recent years.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said on Aug. 11 that homicides dropped 30% in the past two years and shootings were down 40% in the past year alone.

"If President Trump wants to help make Chicago safer, he can start by releasing the funds for anti-violence programs that have been critical to our work to drive down crime and violence," Johnson said in a statement.

In a joint statement on Aug. 11, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, and other local elected leaders said they "stand in strong opposition to the President's latest power grab, which is based on pure lies about our communities."

"As leaders in Baltimore and the state of Maryland, we Baltimore, like D.C., is seeing real public safety progress - with homicides down 40% since 2021 - even as the Trump administration has slashed funding for the programs that have brought crime to record lows," according to the statement.

Civil rights leaders also condemned the deployment and police takeover, calling it "unprecedented," and warned that there would be long-term repercussions to First Amendment rights. The Rev. Al Sharpton, who founded the National Action Network, said in a statement that “the people of Washington, D.C. ‒ especially those living on the streets, who need the most care ‒ will suffer, alongside the core principles of our Democracy.”

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: National Guard troops arrive in DC under Trump's order to fight crime, reduce homelessness

Reporting by Trevor Hughes, Michael Loria and Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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