Since August 11th, in response to Trump’s blatant lies about a so-called “crime invasion,” hundreds of National Guard troops and armed federal agents have descended upon Washington D.C, patrolling the city, intimidating, harassing, and arresting anyone they can. And now some right wing governors in other states have said they also plan to send hundreds of National Guardsmen to terrorize D.C.
If there is a state of emergency, there is a law that allows the president to take over D.C. for 30 days. But Trump’s claims that there is some crime emergency in D.C. is a total lie. Trump just used the excuse of crime in D.C. to demonize the Black population, undocumented immigrants, and the homeless. This isn’t about fighting crime at all. Of course, there are crimes of poverty in D.C., as in every major city. But the actual crime rate in D.C. is not at any historic high.
Just like their terrorism against immigrants, they are indiscriminately targeting whole communities, children, parents, and workers. This assault on the people of D.C. must be understood for what it is. This is a blatantly racist attempt to harass and intimidate people in order to silence them and suppress resistance.
Trump also said his administration may try similar attacks in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore and Oakland. This has nothing to do with crime. These are all cities with large Black and immigrant populations. These are cities that have strong histories of protest and resistance, especially against racism and police violence. He is intentionally targeting these areas to show that he can send these armed squads anywhere to terrorize anyone, especially in places where people have stood up before. There have been reports that the administration plans to create a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force” made up of hundreds of National Guard troops that can be rapidly sent into any U.S. city facing large protests or unrest. This assault on D.C. is clearly just the beginning.
The Trump administration is expecting increasing unrest because they know their policies do not benefit most people. Their goals are to gut the state and remove any obstacles in the way of profit, while transferring wealth to the richest in our society through tax cuts. To get away with such a blatant attack on the majority of the working population, they are trying to whip up a minority of the population into a frenzy around crime and play on racial divisions in society. This is a classic divide and conquer tactic. They are increasing and unleashing the repressive apparatus of the state to intimidate us into submission. The massive resources poured into ICE are part of this strategy. The vast majority of the thousands of people that have been abducted by ICE are not criminals — existence is not a crime.
Faced with this situation, we cannot give in to the attacks on immigrant workers, or Black workers, or on the homeless — these are attacks on all of us, and we cannot allow this terror to continue. It is understandable that many people are afraid of being rounded up by these gunmen. But we can’t remain silent in the face of these attacks. We are the only ones with the power to organize together against this militarized occupation of our communities.
The Democrats have nothing to offer in the face of this. They regularly say some words of opposition, but they aren’t very different. When large protests rocked LA’s streets in response to immigration raids in June, the Democrats’ response was to argue that they are the only ones with the authority to call out the National Guard in their state, not Trump. They argued that they could repress the protests themselves and didn’t need Trump’s help. And the Democratic Mayor of L.A. was quick to call a curfew and send in local police to beat and arrest protestors who were standing up for their community members being abducted and disappeared by ICE.
The Trump administration is emboldened. They think they can impose this racist, authoritarian regime of terror. They think that there is nothing that can stop them. The courts may issue temporary rulings which slow Trump down in small ways, only to get to the Supreme Court to be overturned.
It is clear what their plans are — to squeeze the population, to cut the services we rely on, all to further enrich the billionaires and their corporations. But we can’t just roll over and let this happen. We have stood up to brutal attacks like this before, and we can do it again. We have enormous strength in our numbers, and we do the work to make their system run. They know this, which is why they want to divide us. As they prepare to increase their attacks, we must prepare to gather our forces, and build up a resistance that can stand up to this authoritarian regime, and fight to get rid of this whole system.
