D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has revived calls for the District of Columbia to become America’s 51st state in response to President Donald Trump’s move to federalize Washington’s police force.
Trump announced a huge crackdown on street crime in the nation’s capital on Monday, insisting it was necessary to safeguard the public from “violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,” despite the official statistics for the last two years showing a steep decline in offenses.
The National Guard duly hit the streets on Tuesday night but, for Bowser, their presence is not necessary.
“We have seen a precipitous lessening of crime in the city, violent crime, especially after a post-Covid spike that we acknowledge, and we got after, and we drove down the numbers in 2023,” the mayor said on The Breakfast Club radio show on Tuesday.
“We reported last year the lowest level of violent crime in 30 years. So, we’re not taking our foot off the gas.
“We’re continuing to work, but we think that this action kind of plays into his narrative about cities, about using force, about being tough on crime, and I can say a little bit more about why D.C. is different, but it’s times like this when America needs to know why your nation’s capital, a place where 700,000 taxpaying Americans live, should be the 51st state.”
Although D.C. has three electoral votes in presidential elections, it does not have voting representatives or senators in Congress and is subject to a greater degree of control by the federal government than individual states.
It was created by direct order of the U.S. Constitution, which called for the formation of a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress, a stipulation honored by the Residence Act that was adopted on July 16 1790 and brought the District of Columbia into being to house the city of Washington.
Bowser was more directly critical of Trump’s anti-crime strategy during a virtual town hall event with local citizens on Tuesday, just as the Guard were being deployed.
Taking questions from residents, she was asked how faith groups could help support the community, prompting her to urge residents to protect the city.
“This is a time when the community needs to jump in,” Bowser answered. “To protect our city, to protect our autonomy, to protect our home rule.
“Get to the other side of this guy and make sure we elect a Democratic House so that we have a backstop to this authoritarian push.”
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