Several thousand protesters marched in Washington, DC, yesterday to demand that US President Donald Trump end the deployment of National Guard troops patrolling the capital city’s streets.
With Trump vowing crackdowns in other Democratic-led cities as well, he appeared to threaten Chicago with migrant deportations in a social media post with an image that parodied the 1979 Vietnam war movie “Apocalypse Now.”
Protesters at the “We Are All DC” march, including undocumented immigrants and supporters of Palestinian statehood, chanted slogans denouncing Trump and carried posters, some of which read, “Trump must go now,” “Free DC” and “Resist Tyranny.”
“I’m here to protest the occupation of DC,” said Alex Laufer. “We’re opposing the authoritarian regime, and we need to get the federal police and the National Guard off our streets.”
Claiming that crime was blighting the city, Trump deployed the troops last month to “re-establish law, order, and public safety.”
Trump also placed the capital district’s Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control and sent federal law enforcement personnel, including members of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to police the city’s streets, moves critics have decried as federal overreach.
Washington, DC, Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to block the troop deployment, arguing that it was unconstitutional and violated multiple federal laws.
But some residents have welcomed the National Guard and called for the troops to be deployed in the less-affluent parts of the city where crime is rampant.
The National Guard has been mostly visible in downtown and tourist areas.
Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser has praised Trump’s surge of federal law enforcement personnel in the city, but has said that she hopes that the National Guard’s mission will end soon.
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