The increased presence of law enforcement drew a crowd of protesters a day after the National Guard was deployed on city streets.
Steps away from a YMCA, popular bakery and local pharmacy, a group of law enforcement officers across several agencies turned a busy intersection in a mixed residential-commercial area of Washington, D.C., into a police checkpoint Wednesday night as part of President Donald Trump’s directive to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital.
Uniformed officers with the Metropolitan Police Department stood alongside Homeland Security Investigations personnel and several plainclothes agents at the checkpoint in the U Street corridor at one of the first checkpoints set up since Trump temporarily put D.C. police under federal control and deployed the National Guard.
More than 100 protesters soon gathered in the Northwest D.C. neighborhood, heckling law enforcement and chanting “get off our streets” as agents stopped cars and flagged some vehicles for additional investigation. Several protesters began warning drivers to avoid the checkpoint.
“I know every inch of the city, and to have seen over the years the deterioration of public places, either with graffiti or with people who are homeless, I couldn’t be more encouraged by the fact that there are people now that really want to say, ‘Stop, let’s make this better,’” said Christopher Her, a Maryland resident who previously worked in D.C.
I find it hilarious that the only person they could find to speak in favor of this action doesn’t even live or work in DC.
This headline is sane-washing. There is no “Trump crime crackdown”. This is fascism. Period.
We need to stop these armed thugs for trying to incite rioting. They’re the real criminals at this point.
What fucking “crime”?
NBC should clarify - in their headline - that crime is/was already way down in DC and Donvict’s stunt is exactly that - a stunt.
“Ihre Papiere, bitte?”
what happens if I drive there and just … don’t stop? there is no legit reason for the stop.
I hope you have an armored vehicle with bullet-proof glass, because they would LOVE to kill you. It would totally make their day.
America. Land of the free.
Nothing says freedom like military checkpoints to access the YMCA.
So if Trump is federalizing the police does that mean the Feds are paying their wages. What about the police stations, can the city now close them. The property does belong to the city and expenses are expenses.
He’s afraid he’s gonna get 1/6ed.
Not just from the left, he’s losing the far right too.
Oh great insight, I hadn’t connected the dots to that possibility yet. In the short term just general protests, too.
🎵 You can’t stay at the YMCA! We’re blocking off the YMCA-A. You can’t do anything, the president is an eel, they’re gonna beat your ass for re-eal! 🎶
They’re going after the homeless just like they said they would.
