National Guard takes control of DC

 The Guardian -   For months, roughly 2,000-2,500 national guard troops have been patrolling metro stations, parks, city streets, neighborhoods and tourist attractions throughout Washington DC. In July, that number doubled to more than 5,000 troops from more than a dozen states as part of the federal government’s “summer surge” of law enforcement surrounding major events for the nation’s 250th birthday celebration.

District of Columbia officials are pushing for the troops’ withdrawal, but they have limited control because the nation’s capital isn’t a state and the mayor, Muriel Bowser, doesn’t have the authority to call up the DC national guard, only to request them. City officials also don’t have any control over the troop deployments from other states.

”The national guard is not contributing to law enforcement,” said the DC council chair, Phil Mendelson. “The presence of armed soldiers on our streets is unnecessary, hurts potential visitors to the district, creates the wrong impression about safety, and that’s not helpful.”

DC councilwoman Janeese Lewis George is the presumptive Democratic nominee for DC’s mayor and will probably secure the top spot after November’s general election. She has pledged to work with the federal government and the Trump administration to improve conditions for DC residents.

“Governors across the country have been bullied, bribed and misled into misusing their national guard for armed patrols of DC neighborhoods that result in harm to the troops themselves and our community in DC,” Lewis George said. “It’s been almost a year, and we must not normalize this.”