Crime in retreat, politics on parade — D.C.’s crime story

By Norman Franklin

Norman Franklin

The President’s temporary control of the DC Metropolitan Police Department has ended. Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act expired. Congress chose not to extend the emergency order beyond the 30-day expiration date. The president no longer retains legal authority to force collaboration by DC’s local police; Federal law enforcement agents remain in the city and the National Guard is deployed through November 30. Their mandate to assist is under orders of the Army.

The President boasts the success of the crime intervention―100% crime drop. A review of the data blows away the smoke, smashes the mirrors, and exposes the optics. It was all political theater, crime in DC was already at a 30-year low. The President’s claim distorts reality and his statistics were props stripped of context. The theatrics drowned out the quiet, hard earned gains of Mayor Bowser and the Metro Police. Reforms and com munity programs were steadily lowering crime. The Federal surge only produced dramatic optics―soldiers positioned on corners, mass arrests, clearing homeless encampments―but not new solutions.

Federal intervention piggybacked on the District’s existing progress, hijacked it and rebranded it as a Trump victory.

Experts caution that short-term enforcement surges don’t substitute for long-term, community focused solutions. But the societal costs―civil rights violations, public trust erosion, undermining the competency of Black leadership, and the disproportionate impact on marginalized communities are real and concerning, more than just collateral damage. However, it high lights what Chicago and Baltimore can expect if the Production Company 47 prepares for its next theatrics.

Booking demands may be limited. Crime stats are moving downward in major metropolitan cities. Atlanta reports an 18% drop in total crime and homicides down 15%; in Jackson, Mississippi every major crime stat is down double digits; Charlotte, NC, Dallas and Houston all report significant declines in robberies, homicides and property crimes.

Although New Orleans saw a 35% decline in homicides from 2023 to 2024, and by mid-2025 recorded the lowest homicide rate in decades, there is an unapproved Pentagon pro posal to deploy 1,000 National Guards troops to support law enforcement in urban areas. New Orleans and Baton Rouge are the state’s major urban cities. The demographics show New Orleans with 57% African American population and Baton Rouge with nearly 53%.

Bad optics and an omi nous end game is coming into view. Each of the cities have competent metro law enforcement agencies protecting their residents, reducing crime and securing the safety and security of its citizens. If we avoid the obvious, there is no justification, or crime emergency that warrants federal intervention.

The July 4th patriotic parade show cased America’s military might. It was a symbolic foreshadowing of a broader shift to normalizing military enforcement in domestic issues. The parade conditioned the public to accept uni formed force in response to domestic unrest. The parade for celebration and morale cost millions. It was a dress rehearsal―weeks later the National Guard was deployed to Washington DC, there was a crime emergency. The troops were necessary to restore law and order, to secure public safety, and to build trust and confidence in law enforcement. The crime stats reveal a manufactured emergency. The cities of Atlanta, Chicago, New Orleans and Houston, major urban cities, are now framed as unsafe zones requiring federal intervention to restore order.

The fact remains that it shapes up to be a blue-state, red-state refrain. Democratic-led cities―Washington DC, Chicago, New York, and Atlanta, signals a selective alarm. Crime rates in New Orleans, Houston, Dallas and Jackson equal or exceed the stats of Democrat -led cities.

Democrats are portrayed as weak and unable to control crime―federal control is needed. In the Republican led cities, crime is framed as a local problem, more policing, harsher sentences, and tough-love solutions will bring order.

The lesson is clear: crime interven tion that relies on optics and federal overreach undermines the very prog ress it claims to secure. Cities already lowering crime through reforms and community investment don’t need soldiers; they need sustained trust and resources. To normalize military presence in domestic life is to mistake smoke and mirrors for substance—an illusion that erodes local authority, distorts reality, and fractures the frag ile covenant of democracy itself.