Washington, DC, United States – Outside Union Station in the US capital, bored-looking soldiers linger near two large armoured vehicles as commuters and tourists snap photos of the unusual scene.
Inside the century-old transportation hub, a dozen National Guard soldiers pace the marble floors, appearing to be armed only with zip-tie handcuffs.
Their presence has not directly disrupted traffic, but the Trump administration’s deployment of federal forces – part of its takeover of city policing – has left Washington, DC, residents fearful and confused.
Randy Kindle, a 48-year-old Air Force veteran, called the deployment a “show”.
“It’s disrespectful to our troops to have to invade their own country essentially and be pitted against their own citizens”, Kindle told Al Jazeera outside Union Station.
He said he witnessed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in neighbouring Maryland during which the immigration agents had their own film crew.
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security released a video of golden-branded ICE trucks with President Donald Trump’s name on the back featuring a rap song that says: “My heart so cold I think I’m done with ice”.
“This is a reality show for them”, Kindle said. “It’s a f****** idiocracy”.
Throughout Washington on Thursday, soldiers were seen going up and down the escalators at metro stations, chatting among themselves and loitering on street corners.
“From what I’ve seen and heard, many of the troops are standing around, many of them out in the elements, not supported with proper equipment or vehicles – frankly looking bored”, Washington Council member Zachary Parker told Al Jazeera.
“This is a manufactured crisis made up by the Trump administration for their own political gain”, Parker said.
Trump said the federalisation of Washington’s policing was necessary and aimed to combat what he described as rampant crime in the city.
But official data show that crime has seen a sharp decline in the US capital over the past few years, hitting a 30-year low in 2024, according to the US Department of Justice.
Parker warned that Trump’s move in Washington should not be taken lightly by the rest of the country.
He said that, at best, the Washington takeover may be an attempt to make Trump look tough on crime and distract from issues the US president is facing.
“A darker view of this moment is that this is a precursor of militarising American cities and streets and confronting American citizens with military might”, the council member told Al Jazeera.
“I think we ought to take this moment very seriously – both those of us here in DC, but Americans writ large”.
Trump praises the crackdown
Since the federal takeover began last week, the Trump administration has centred the issue in its public messaging.
For example, as of Friday morning, seven of the past 10 posts on X by Attorney General Pam Bondi were about Washington, DC.
Bondi has been sharing daily updates about arrests made in the city – a total of 719, including 40 on Thursday. Washington police arrested an average of 56 people daily last year, according to city data.
The Justice Department, which did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment, has not specified whether the arrests were made entirely by federal agents or whether they include law enforcement action by Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department.
But local TV channel ABC 7 News quoted federal officials as saying the numbers included arrests by all agencies in the city.
It’s also not clear whether the detention of undocumented immigrants is included in the tally. Arrests made by ICE were only distinguished in Bondi’s daily announcements on Thursday and Friday.
But Trump and his aides are talking up the arrests as a considerable feat.
On Thursday evening, Trump rode around Washington with law enforcement officers in a show of control and defiance against critics of the crackdown.
“Some incredible outcomes have been achieved. … It’s like a different place. It’s like being in a different place. The capital is there. It’s going to be the best in the world”, the US president told soldiers and law enforcement officers.
On Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited Union Station and ordered burgers from a fast food restaurant as protesters chanted against them.
Trump  first suggested federalizing law enforcement in Washington after an employee of his Department of Government Efficiency’s cost-cutting Department was assaulted early this month.
On Friday, Hegseth ordered National Guard troops in Washington to start carrying firearms, according to the Pentagon.
Washington, why?
Since he entered politics in 2015, Trump has described major cities, which are almost all run by Democrats, as infested by crime, drugs and homelessness.
Some rural conservative beliefs toward liberal cities were echoed by that perception.
Trump has for a while threatened to send the military to dangerous cities, but the US Constitution grants state policing authority, not the federal government.
Washington, DC, however, is not a state. It has no enshrined state rights or no votes in the US Congress as the capital.
The local government has some control over the city thanks to the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973, but the federal government still has some authority. For example, Congress may overturn local resolutions approved by the city council.
Additionally, the law grants the president the 30-day power to take over policing in the capital.
With 92.5 percent of the ballots last year, the city has been ripe for a Trump crackdown because Kamala Harris, who won in Washington against Republican incumbent Donald Trump, has overwhelmingly supported the Democratic Party.
Several residents expressed bewilderment to Al Jazeera and questioned the need for patrols by federal forces in crowded metro stations and tourist areas that are low-crime spots.
Iced out . pic . twitter.com/xhexqgmbzS
DC crime
Washington is a city of 700, 000 people with a metropolitan area that extends into suburbs in Maryland and Virginia and encompasses more than six million residents.
According to Kindle, some visitors and Republican officials prefer that Washington appear less touristy and crowded than it is.
They believe this to be Disneyland-like. This is a tourist spot. He claimed that they should be sanitized. They are seeing what their own cities would not.
Despite improvements in recent years, several residents told Al Jazeera that crime still remains a concern in Washington.
The city has a homicide rate of about 25 per 100,000 residents, which is significantly higher than the national average but lower than those in similar cities like Memphis, Tennessee and Detroit, Michigan.
Washington is not listed among the 25 most dangerous cities in the nation according to US News & World Report, which compiles crime data.
Some welcome the National Guard
With 190 incidents recorded this year so far, Washington continues to experience violent property crime, particularly juvenile carjackings.
The White House argued on its website that Washington has the fourth-highest homicide rate in the nation, “nearly six times higher than New York City and also higher than Atlanta, Chicago, and Compton,” in support of troop deployments in the city.
Leroy Miles, a 75-year-old retiree, said “it’s good” that federal forces are helping the local police.
Miles claimed he disliked Trump and called him a “crook”; however, he also alleged that local authorities had failed to do a good job of preventing crime.
“These young people are robbing and killing,” the statement read. They’re carjacking. They also require some form of outdated law and order, according to Miles, who has lived in Washington all his life.
What’s happening is that many people don’t like it but it might work, he said.
Less secure, then.
Parker argued that Washington’s absence of a crime crisis “does not mean that we don’t have more work to do.”
“There are ways in which our local government can productively work with the federal government”, Parker said.
“And what is happening here, where there are National Guards, people deployed, and federal officers, including those from other states, is not the way. This is not the proper course of action.
He underscored that the Republican-controlled Congress has cut and so far failed to restore $1bn in funding for Washington – money that would go to fighting crime, paying police officers and supporting city services that enhance public safety.
The council member praised the National Guard’s soldiers, who are frequently called on to assist in emergencies and natural disasters, but warned that bringing in outsiders to policing the city could erode trust between the citizens and law enforcement.
“I already notice it,” I have heard directly from residents who are second-guessing calling 911 in instances of true emergencies for fear of what’s going to be the outcome or who might show up at their door”, he said.
Parents are complaining that their kids’ first day of school is the following week, and I’m hearing from them. Residents who are voicing their opposition to ICE patrols’ plans to criminalize our neighbors are speaking out.
Parker said the federal crackdown is making Washington “less safe”.
We are ‘We are ‘numb’ to it.
A Washington Post poll released on Wednesday suggested 80 percent of Washington residents oppose “Trump taking control of DC’s police and federal troops patrolling the streets” while 72 percent of respondents favour the city becoming a state.
Another factor causing protests against the Trump takeover is the loss of local control in a place where tax-paying citizens lack federal voting rights.
According to Parker, “We have allowed the disenfranchisement of Washingtonians, and now there is an effort to undermine the local autonomy we do have.”
Wes, a Washington resident who wished to be identified by his first name only, citing fear of reprisal by the government, warned that the tensions around the issue could boil over.
“We’re hysterical,” You have people who are afraid to leave their homes, Wes said outside the Columbia Heights metro station, which had been heavily ICE-occupied earlier this week.
“You got people scared to walk the streets like they used to because of this show of force. We have no faith in the police in this place. You now bring a person who we don’t know but who is completely untrained. They’re not even from here. They are ignorant of how this city operates.
He claimed that Trump would be to blame for the rise in riots and violent riots as people become angry with excessive policing and social programs.
Source: Aljazeera
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