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Local officials from Washington, D.C. have blocked, for now, President Trump's bid to try to take full control of the city's police department. After a court hearing yesterday, the Trump administration withdrew its bid to name an emergency police chief. NPR's Brian Mann has the story.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: This latest escalation in the clash over control of law enforcement in the nation's capital began when U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi named Terry Cole, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, to serve as D.C.'s emergency police chief. That would have given the White House full operational control over the city's street cops. But Washington, D.C.'s attorney general, Brian Schwalb, quickly filed a lawsuit, calling Bondi's power play blatantly illegal.
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BRIAN SCHWALB: The authority to appoint a chief of police sits squarely with the mayor. The right to control the local policing of our city sits with the mayor and the chief of police.
MANN: Schwalb spoke late yesterday after a lengthy hearing where federal judge Ana Reyes has urged local officials and the Trump administration to negotiate a settlement. While federal officials didn't comment afterwards, Schwalb said attorneys representing Bondi and the U.S. Justice Department agreed to back off.
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SCHWALB: The hostile takeover of our police force is not going to happen. Very important win for home rule today.
MANN: It's still unclear how this increasingly tense relationship between federal officials and Washington's metropolitan police department will work. D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser was asked Friday about growing anger among some residents toward federal agents and national guard troops now on the streets.
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MURIEL BOWSER: D.C. residents are worried and concerned, and we have a surge of federal officers. While we aren't controlling them, we do have the ability to influence how they're being deployed.
MANN: Bowser has signaled repeatedly she hopes to minimize conflicts with forces deployed by Trump. But friction on the street rose Friday as federal agents move to clear more homeless camps.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Free D.C. Free D.C. Free D.C.
MANN: Protesters gathered near the federal courthouse demanding Trump withdraw federal forces. Keya Chatterjee heads an activist group called Free D.C.
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KEYA CHATTERJEE: It's not our D.C. values to have illegal checkpoints all over our community. This is a hostile takeover of our community, and we will not allow it, right?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: We will not.
MANN: Trump and Bondi have said repeatedly through this turbulent week that the declaration of a crime emergency in D.C. was necessary to restore public order. Here's Trump speaking from the White House Monday.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: This dire public safety crisis stems directly from the abject failures of the city's local leadership.
MANN: Trump rejected data published by the U.S. Justice Department showing nearly every category of crime in Washington has dropped rapidly in recent years. He said, under his leadership, city police would target criminals far more aggressively.
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TRUMP: They fight back until you knock the hell out of them.
MANN: Republicans who control Congress have largely endorsed Trump's false narrative that D.C. is a lawless place. Democrats on Friday introduced their own resolution, which stands no chance of passing, to end Trump's emergency declaration. Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland is one of the sponsors.
JAMIE RASKIN: There's plainly no emergency. The president has talked about graffiti. He's talked about seeing homeless people on the street and considering that an eyesore.
MANN: Some policing experts say they're alarmed by Trump's chaotic bid to assume control of Washington's street cops. Rosa Brooks is a former Washington, D.C. reserve police officer who teaches at Georgetown Law School.
ROSA BROOKS: I think it's actually quite dangerous, right? Whenever you have lots and lots of armed people and lack of clarity about who's in charge, you have a really risky situation.
MANN: Brooks is also troubled by Trump's decision to deploy National Guard troops in a policing role, and by Trump's statement that he wants this intervention repeated in other American cities.
BROOKS: You know, it's both a huge, huge, huge waste of federal resources, and it's quite scary, the idea of troops on the street stopping you because you committed a traffic violation. It's unprecedented.
MANN: With hundreds of federal agents and troops deployed here, more demonstrations and protests are expected today.
Brian Mann, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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