Things just got real between Washington, D.C., and President Donald Trump. On Friday morning, the city moved to slam the brakes on what officials are calling an unprecedented power grab amid their crime crackdown—one that threatens how the capital runs its own police force. And judging by the lawsuit filed, they aren’t taking the strong-arm move lightly.
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The clash erupted Thursday night, when U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an order appointing DEA Administrator Terry Cole as Washington, D.C.’s “emergency police commissioner”—effectively booting the city’s appointed Police Chief Pamela Smith. This prompted District Attorney General Brian Schwalb to fire back with a lawsuit by Friday morning, per The Guardian.
According to Schwalb, the move oversteps the legal limits set by the Home Rule Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Constitution—and puts the safety of the city’s residents at risk.
“By declaring a hostile takeover of MPD, the Administration is abusing its limited, temporary authority under the Home Rule Act, infringing on the District’s right to self-governance and putting the safety of DC residents and visitors at risk. The Administration’s unlawful actions are an affront to the dignity and autonomy of the 700,000 Americans who call DC home,” Schwalb stated in a press release, NBC reported.
Schwalb added that Bondi’s order was “unlawful,” urging that her directive could not be honored by the city’s police force. “Therefore, members of MPD must continue to follow your orders and not the orders of any official not appointed by the Mayor,” Schwalb added, per the news outlet.
When D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser was asked about the challenges of federalization, his response seemingly deflected any motion to clap back at the shocking move, citing the president’s “broad” power.
“What I would point you to is the Home Rule Charter that gives the president the ability to determine the conditions of an emergency,” Bowser said at a Monday news conference. “We could contest that, but the [president’s] authority is pretty broad,” Bowser stated earlier this week, per NBC.
To us, this looks strikingly similar to America’s good ole’ “war on crime” agenda—the same “tough-on-crime” political play we saw throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s, disproportionately targeting minority communities and low-income areas. Trump’s recent Truth Social post equates crime in D.C. to that of “the most violent third world countries,” claiming the city’s homicide rates are “ten times higher” than Iraq.
This appears to be the start of similar tactics used to justify heavy-handed policies—similar to what we saw during the rise of mass incarceration in the 1970s, which lead to a cycle of over-policing, community distrust, and systemic inequities that devastated Black and brown neighborhoods across the country, as reported by Vera.
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