Multiple protests were held to mark one year since President Donald Trump declared a crime emergency and deployed National Guard troops to D.C.
Protesters with the Free D.C. movement gathered on 16th street near the White House Tuesday to push back on what the group describes as a 12-month-long occupation by the National Guard.
“I don’t see exactly what it is that they are protecting me from, because I live in a very nice touristy part of town,” a protester told 杏吧原创’s Steve Karesh. “I don’t see any change. If anything else, I hate feeling unsafe because now there are troops on the street.”
Free D.C. has hosted a string of events marking the anniversary this month, as part of its advocacy for home rule and the District’s sovereignty., Free D.C. is a fiscally hosted special project of that works to better the lives of low-income people.
“The president didn’t just want to change how the laws were enforced; he wanted to change the laws themselves,” said Sen. Ankit Jain, one of D.C.鈥檚 shadow senators. “So, he got his allies in Congress to work trying to repeal our local laws and rewrite our local democratic system in line with their far-right agenda.”
The Trump administration rationalized the deployment last summer by arguing crime had surged in the nation’s capital. At the time, District officials insisted that crime was dropping and pointed to data collected by police as evidence.
But federal officials questioned the validity of the police department’s system for collecting data on arrests. Ultimately a report by the city’s inspector general found a 鈥減rolonged, systemic breakdown of its internal control system,鈥� but no fraud or intentionality behind mistakes in the stats.
When asked about whether she feels safer with the troops in town, Dina Lewis, of Le Droit Park, said: “I do not. I feel more afraid because they’re carrying weapons and they’re armed and they’re in the military and they don’t know how to deal with day-to-day activities like de-escalation and things like that to help prevent violence.”
According to Lewis, National Guard troops were sent to the park last week.
“I don’t understand the rationale of spending money on the National Guard rather than on the violence prevention programs that were helping in the community,” Lewis said.
has reported the projected cost of the first year of deployment was approximately $660 million, but it isn’t clear how much has already been spent.
Crime data gathered by D.C. police shows violent crime is up slightly from this time last year, with a 3% rise, while overall property crimes are down by 23%,
Nee Nee Taylor is a cofounder of the group and the executive director of Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, a D.C.-area advocacy group.
“Before federal agents flooded our streets, before this racist regime escalated its attacks in our city and on our people, Harriet’s Wildest Dreams was already organizing against over policing, surveillance, criminalization, and state-sanctioned violence,” Taylor said. “When the occupation came, we did what we have always done: we resisted, we fought back, and we skilled up our people.”
A group called CourtWatch D.C. has been part of the movement.
“For 173 days, our CourtWatch D.C, has put trained community members inside D.C. courtrooms to witness what this system does to our people and make sure it does not happen in the dark,” Taylor said. “Shine a light on them.”
Concern for homeless people in DC
On Monday night, Free D.C. held a rally and march near Franklin Park to focus on protecting vulnerable residents during the troop’s deployment.
鈥淥ur unhoused neighbors are, in this occupation, some of the most visible and vulnerable. They’re on the streets and can鈥檛 always avoid the National Guard,” Erin Schmieder, who represents Ward 2 for Free D.C., said.
The White House recently announced National Guard troops in the District will be moving into more permanent housing, a decision Schmieder criticized. Trump has extended the deployment of troops in D.C. through January 2029.
鈥淚f there鈥檚 money to pay for the National Guard to be housed here through 2029, there鈥檚 money to house the people who are already in D.C.,鈥� Schmieder said.
The march ended at 13th Street and Massachusetts Avenue NW, where the demonstrators joined a group of people in their 80s who have banged pots and pans almost every night for the past year to protest the surge of law enforcement in the District.
杏吧原创’s Steve Karesh contributed to this report.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
漏 2026 杏吧原创. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
