Washington, DC, Residents Protest Against Trump

Several thousand protesters march to oppose Trump’s troop deployment, Justice Department data shows violent crime at 30-year low in D.C., and D.C. AG files lawsuit against troop deployment, citing unconstitutionality

By Brad Ulery, Reuters

Several thousand protesters marched in Washington, D.C., on Saturday to demand that U.S. 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.”

national guard troops in front of the us capitol

Protesters at the “We Are All D.C.” 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 D.C.,” 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.