Scores of protesters marched in Washington, DC, on Saturday against President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the city’s police department and deployment of National Guard troops to the capital.
Holding signs that read “protect DC home rule” and “stop the Trump takeover,” participants in the “We Are All DC” march journeyed from Meridian Hill Park to Freedom Plaza near the White House to protest what they see as Trump’s authoritarian push to control the district.
“To see the destruction of the federal workforce and the importation of the National Guard to try to keep peace where crime is at the lowest it’s been in 30 years. It’s just, it moved me to protest,” David Reinke, a former government contractor who lives in neighboring Maryland, told CNN.
Last month, Trump declared a crime emergency and ordered the federal government to take control of DC’s police department, surged federal law enforcement into the district and deployed National Guard troops – a broad effort that has drawn the ire of many city residents.
DC’s violent crime rate has plummeted in the last decades and reached its lowest since 1966 in 2024, CNN previously reported.
