jonetta rose barras: President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans engage in political violence against DC’s 700,000 residents

Most Americans, even those who vehemently oppose President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, will admit that the murder of Charlie Kirk is the most recent evidence of a frightening escalation of political violence in the country. I agree with that assessment.  

However, in hoisting the example of the so-called free-speech advocate and conservative provocateur, Trump and his minions have severely and deliberately narrowed the definition of political violence. As is their practice, they have massaged and manipulated language, thrusting their version of Webster’s into the public sphere and bullying the media, elected officials and others into adopting it.

Trump’s continued tampering with reality should not go unchallenged. Democracy depends on honest discourse. What’s more, lives are at stake.

Truth be told, over these past nine months many Americans have endured political violence by the proverbial thousand cuts. Trump’s executive orders and actions by members of his cabinet have inflicted great harm, jeopardizing the lives of children, the disabled, seniors and others. Consider, for example, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s push to scale back vaccine recommendations — which states use in developing their own vaccination policies and insurance companies refer to in determining their coverage — or the reduction in funding childhood cancer research. The life chances of many children will be cut short — some may have already died.

DC and the greater Washington area have at times seemed the epicenter of much of the political violence. Consider the actions of mask-wearing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as they nabbed DC residents who were driving home from work, working gigs for which they are barely paid the minimum wage, and even taking their children to school.

“Grabbing a father walking his daughter to school is terrorizing a community, and that needs to stop,” said DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson earlier this week at his regular monthly press briefing. 

In the past two weeks, the attacks have been somewhat more subtle, but nevertheless relentless. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have now approved four of 13 bills targeting DC home rule, including one introduced by Florida’s Byron Donalds that would drop the designation of “youth” from 24 years old to under 18 years old when judges are sentencing defendants. Another one, introduced by Texas Republican Brandon Gill, would permit prosecutors to charge 14- and 15-year-old children as adults. During his floor speech, Gill praised Trump for “restoring law and order in cities” and characterized DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb as a “woke, weird prosecutor.”

Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts Democrat, during floor debate recalled the 1989 case of the Central Park Five, in which five youths of color were arrested and eventually convicted of the rape of a woman who had been jogging. They served between seven and 13 years in prison before the actual rapist confessed. During the height of that trial, private businessperson Trump took out a full-page newspaper ad, urging that the young men be sentenced to death. If the government had heeded his call, innocent children would have been killed. It was a “hyper-punitive culture that targeted the Black and brown community,” added Pressley.

“These House bills are a completely unnecessary intrusion on the District’s ability to make and enforce our laws,” said Mendelson, offering in a prepared statement released on Tuesday that they “will increase criminal behavior. Data shows juveniles tried as adults are more likely to re-offend than those tried in the juvenile justice system — a system built on the principles of rehabilitation through education and counseling, not punishment.”

“Fourteen-year-olds should not be put in adult prison,” Mendelson said.

Of course, neither Gill nor Donalds, nor any of the other representatives who introduced legislation that alters the DC Home Rule Act or amends existing city laws, actually call the District home. They probably couldn’t find their way to historic Anacostia — with or without a map. It’s unlikely that they’ve even stepped inside the John A. Wilson Building.

“We’re all from different states; none of us are from DC,” said Massachusetts Democrat Jim McGovern during a meeting of the Rules Committee on Monday. “It’s probably better to work with elected officials.”

Don’t expect that to happen during these next few years. DC residents will continue to be treated as necessary detritus as Republicans use the city to create a platform that they hope will help the party retain its control of Congress and the White House.

Actually, some residents in other cities are experiencing a similar fate. In Los Angeles, many who suffered through wildfires are still awaiting aid from a federal government that wants to punish them because they reside in a blue city inside a blue state. Should that be catalogued as political violence?

A year after Hurricane Helene devastated North Carolina, some parts of the state are still pleading for help. In a letter to Trump and others dated Sept. 15, Democratic Gov. Josh Stein noted that funds received from the feds have only been enough to remediate 9% of the problems. Typically, he said, money is provided to address 40% to 50% of the destruction and damage.

When considering political violence, no one should forget federal workers savaged and thrown from their jobs, principally because of their refusal to pledge allegiance to Trump. That was sanctioned by his extended posse, including Congress and the majority of the U.S. Supreme Court that has abetted the public mangling of the country’s judicial system. 

This week, House Republicans also came after the nonpartisan DC Judicial Nomination Commission, which has identified judges for possible appointment by presidents to DC’s local courts. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform voted to eliminate that body in favor of turning the entire process over to Trump, ensuring the nomination and confirmation of more unskilled and poisonous jurists like Aileen Cannon. The full House voted 218-211, along party lines, in favor of the legislation. 

The House also debated the District of Columbia Policing Protection Act, introduced by Louisiana’s Clay Higgins, that would essentially authorize DC police officers and their supervisors to use their discretion when deciding whether to engage in vehicular chase of someone believed to have committed a crime. Higgins said current District law is a “complex matrix” that officers have to consider before pursuing. The DC Council has “essentially made it illegal” to engage in high-speed pursuits, he added. 

Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, called the practice dangerous, especially in dense urban environments like the District, noting that states like Texas, Florida and Tennessee have established standards that limit such chases. “DC is following the same path,” continued Garcia. “Congress is acting like some sort of super council.”

“I’ve seen the results of some of these high-speed chases,” said Maryland’s Glenn Ivey. “What happens when that chase leads to the death of an innocent person?”

The legislation passed on a 245-182 vote; 29 Democrats threw their lots in with Republicans.

“Congress should be focused on national priorities,” said Garcia during Tuesday’s floor debate. Indeed, there is much to consider: the abysmal performance of Trump’s tariff elixir; the rising unemployment in the country; and the spate of disturbing crimes in Utah, including a failed effort to blow up a vehicle owned by a local television station and Tyler Robinson’s declaration that he had had enough of Kirk’s “hatred” and hate speech, which apparently motivated the assassination.

Instead of Trump creating a rotating list of Democratic cities to which he will deploy National Guard troops in his crime reduction program riddled with criminal violations and violence, he may want to closely examine what is happening in Utah.

He might also do well to reflect on his own offenses highlighted by House Democrats this week during a hearing called by the Oversight Committee. That list, as Garcia suggested, would have to include the fact that Trump’s Office of Management and Budget has been unlawfully “freezing funds” authorized for education, and that the Department of Homeland Security has “unleashed masked agents, ignoring legal rights of citizens. … This is all, we know, the tip of the iceberg.”

“The real crime wave is [at] the White House,” asserted New Mexico Democrat Melanie Stansbury. Who could argue with that? Trump was convicted of 34 felonies, and he and his family seem to be operating a criminal enterprise inside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, including shaking down various corporations going through regulatory oversight.

Naturally, Republicans are uninterested in analyzing the violations of their rogue president. They continued this week in finding pleasure bludgeoning the District, even as DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb and Mendelson, who were called to testify before the Oversight Committee, presented indisputable evidence of the District’s efforts to respond to crime and other typical urban issues. Unsurprisingly, it was their first chance to testify in person about the flurry of anti-home rule bills already approved by the committee.

Mendelson noted that with “the four functions of government … we are doing well. Despite these pluses, we are a city under siege.”

Who will call for the lowering of flags?

District residents have seen and felt political violence up close and personal under the guise of a Trump and congressional rescue from crime. The chaos and confusion in the city over the past several weeks, especially during the president’s so-called public safety emergency, have reminded me of that scene in Chinatown where Faye Dunaway confesses to Jack Nicholson that the young girl is her sister and her daughter.

Republicans claim that the glut of legislative proposals that have raced through the House will protect DC while making it safer for those who live here and for tourists. However, during committee hearings and floor votes this week, Higgins and Kentucky Republican James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, have made clear by some of their comments that they are mostly hoping to bolster Trump’s agenda and thereby gain favor with him as the midterm election campaigns kick off. 

“We’ve debated these bills in a sincere effort to work with the president of the United States,” said Comer, without a mention of DC’s mayor or its 13 councilmembers and multitude of advisory neighborhood commissioners. In doing so, alas, they ignored substantial research and failed to reach out to local officials to understand the details, leading to misunderstandings such as how the “youth offender” statute applies, as Mendelson explained at the hearing. 

It’s true, even with the drop in crime witnessed over the past two years, DC continues to have a crime problem. A strong and consistent response is needed. 

However, when federal officials cite the number of guns collected off the streets as validation of their crucial role, do not believe that hype. The federal government’s reckless gun laws paved the way for the influx of firearms in the first place. Moreover, inadequate reimbursement for the Metropolitan Police Department’s federal responsibilities has only complicated the city’s efforts to increase the size of the police force and keep up with the rate of attrition. 

“If this administration wants to address public safety issues — stop holding DC hostage,” Stansbury said.

Republicans do not need to create new laws to deal with DC public policies they believe to be ineffectual. The Home Rule Act gives them the authority to reject any legislative proposal within the 30-day review provided to Congress. They could also meet with local officials in a more productive forum than the political theater of an antagonistic, highly partisan oversight hearing; by doing so, they might even find common ground on how to improve public safety.

Given this week’s passage of four destructive legislative proposals in the House, Mendelson said he and other elected officials will “now turn our sights on the Senate.”

“We will continue to meet with lawmakers on the Hill on both sides of the aisle in an effort to shut down these harmful bills that severely damage the District’s public safety,” added Mendelson.

Has he forgotten that earlier this year the Senate voted for the reconciliation bill drafted and approved by the House, which sent DC scrambling to cover a $1 billion midyear budget shortfall? Senators adopted a bipartisan fix — but that bill never came up for a vote in the House, notwithstanding assurances from the speaker and statements of support from Trump. 

On Thursday, Comer promised elected officials and DC citizens that the GOP’s new reconciliation bill would include a provision enabling the District to spend that money. The bill was approved along party lines and is now under consideration by the Senate. 

Will the city really get its money? Or will this remain one more example of political violence against DC residents?

jonetta rose barras is an author and DC-based freelance journalist, covering national and local issues. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.