Trump confronts DC corruption
When President Trump announced the federal government was taking over law enforcement in the nation’s capital, I applauded.
The District of Columbia is a federal district. It was created by the Founding Fathers to be the neutral site for governing the country without being vulnerable to pressure from Virginia, Maryland, or other states.
By definition, the federal government is the ultimate guarantor of public safety in Washington. When I was Speaker of the House, we inherited a bankrupt, out-of-control, crime-ridden, and functionally incompetent city government.
We took dramatic steps to fight crime, improve education, and create tax breaks which attracted businesses and home buyers back into the city.
When Mayor Anthony Williams was elected in 1998, we also had a common-sense, business-oriented partner with whom we could work to rebuild the city.
That improved system lasted about 20 years until corruption, incompetence, and anti-police, and anti-business attitudes once again led the city toward decay.
Congress and the Justice Department are now investigating the Metropolitan Police Department. Under pressure from liberal D.C. politicians, at least two officers reportedly manipulated crime data to make the city seem safer than it is.
Given this background, I am deeply supportive of Mr. Trump’s actions at the District.
Now he is talking about extending federal crime fighting to a lot of dangerous cities. That is a big jump. It is a sweeping expansion of federal power into local communities and the states in which they reside. It should not be considered lightly.
At the same time, something must be done. Several American cities have become totally corrupted. They are dominated by government employee unions, distorted by radical politics, and weakened by radical anti-police, pro-criminal ideologies.
Their citizens’ lives are at risk. Their children’s futures are being damaged or even destroyed through bad education systems. Self-serving, incompetent teachers unions dominate the systems — despite their failure to provide students with meaningful educations.
For several generations, citizen reform movements have been crushed by the enormous power of leftwing unions and machine politics. This has led to corruption on an amazing scale.
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These cities are mainly controlled by Democrat politicians, and they are showing themselves to be as inept on the local level as they were on the national level under Biden. Trump is right to intervene to help the Americans in those cities.
See also:
I live in DC. I'm glad Trump sent in the National Guard to fight crime. | Opinion
Since President Donald Trump federalized the police forces, crime is down significantly, according to the DC police union. These results are very promising.
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