The Greene County Democrat

Tag: Mayor Muriel Bowser

  • Newswire : What Trump’s control of D.C. Police means for the City, Its Mayor, and Black Residents

    National Guard arrive in Washington, D. C.

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    Donald Trump today seized direct control of Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, removing authority from Mayor Muriel Bowser and placing the force under the command of Attorney General Tom Cotton. The move comes under a “crime emergency” declaration that allows the president to invoke Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act — a rarely used law that exists only because the District lacks full statehood.
    For Mayor Bowser, this means she no longer has operational control of her own police department. All decisions on how and where officers are deployed now run through the Justice Department. That includes the ability to redirect D.C. police from neighborhood patrols to guard federal buildings, secure national monuments, and police protests — even if it leaves fewer officers in local communities. For African Americans in the District — who make up nearly half the city’s population — the change places local policing under the direct control of a president who has repeatedly called for racial profiling, attacked other predominately Black-led cities such as Baltimore and Chicago, and used “law and order” policies that disproportionately target Black communities.
    Residents could see federal priorities override local crime prevention strategies, with increased policing around demonstrations and broader latitude for aggressive enforcement tactics. Trump justified the takeover by citing D.C.’s 2024 homicide and vehicle theft rates, even though other cities he has singled out — all with large Black populations and Black leadership — have seen major crime reductions this year. The order has no end date, meaning the District’s police could remain under federal command indefinitely. This is only possible because D.C. is not a state — a political reality that leaves its leadership vulnerable to federal override and its residents without full control over their own local government.

  • Newswire : Statue of Confederate general, Albert Pike, toppled in 2020 to be reinstalled in D.C.

    Demonstrators tore down and burned statue in 2020

    By NBC Washington

    WASHINGTON — A statue of a Confederate general that demonstrators toppled and burned in D.C. in 2020 will be reinstalled, the National Park Service announced Monday.
    The bronze statue depicting Confederate Gen. Albert Pike is being restored, the Park Service said in a statement Monday. Officials shared a photo of a worker removing corrosion and paint.
    “The restoration aligns with federal responsibilities under historic preservation law as well as recent executive orders to beautify the nation’s capital and re-instate pre-existing statues,” the agency said in a statement.
    In June 2020, demonstrators used ropes to tear down the statue outside Metropolitan Police Department headquarters. On live TV, they doused the statue in lighter fluid and set it ablaze.
    Mayor Muriel Bowser at the time decried property destruction and defended city police. Donald Trump, in his first term, called for the statue to go back up less then a week later.
    Now crews are aiming to have the statue up in October, the Park Service said.
    “Site preparation to repair the statue’s damaged masonry plinth will begin shortly, with crews repairing broken stone, mortar joints, and mounting elements,” the statement said.
    The Pike statue, dedicated in 1901, has been a source of controversy for years. The Confederate general also was a longtime leader of the Freemasons, who revere Pike. It was built at the request of Masons, who successfully lobbied Congress to grant them land for the statue as long as Pike would be depicted in civilian, not military, clothing.
    D.C. officials tried to remove the statue for years. The D.C. Council said it first called for its removal in 1992. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced multiple bills in Congress to get it removed.
    One proposed resolution calling for the removal of the statue referred to Pike as a “chief founder of the post-Civil War Ku Klux Klan.” The Klan connection is a frequent accusation from Pike’s critics and one which the Masons dispute.

  • Newswire: Black Lives Matter signs burned at D. C. churches after Trump rally; Police investigate as possible hate crimes

    BBy Tim Stelloh, NBC News
    Black Lives Matter signs that apparently were burned and destroyed at historic Black churches in Washington, D.C., during a pro-Trump rally this weekend are being investigated as possible hate crimes, authorities said Sunday.
    D.C. police said they were seeking information about the incidents, which occurred at Asbury United Methodist Church, founded in 1836, and Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, where Frederick Douglass’ funeral was held in 1895.
    “This weekend, we saw forces of hate seeking to use destruction and intimidation to tear us apart,” Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said in a statement Sunday. “We will not let that happen, and continue to stand together strong and United to Love.”
    She said the police department and religious affairs officials from her office reached out to the churches Sunday.
    In a statement, Asbury’s senior pastor, the Rev. Ianther Mills, said pro-Trump supporters removed a Black Lives Matter sign from the church and “literally burned it in the street.”
    “It pained me especially to see our name, Asbury, in flames,” she said. “For me it was reminiscent of cross burnings.” Seeing the incident on video, Mills said, “made me both indignant and determined to fight the evil that has reared its ugly head.”
    “We had been so confident that no one would ever vandalize the church, but it has happened,” she said. It wasn’t immediately clear what video Mills was referring to. A widely circulated clip on social media purported to show far-right protesters 
    Another widely circulated video appeared to show protesters tearing a Black Lives Matter sign from nearby Metropolitan AME Church. Metropolitan posted a brief statement Sunday on Twitter saying, “Black Lives Matter yesterday, today, and always.”
    Yolanda Pierce, dean of the Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, called the alleged incidents “acts of both racial terror and religious violence.”
    “Burning Black Lives Matter signs ripped from churches is an explicit threat to the sanctity of the Black church and to Black lives and freedom, even if the church itself is not historically Black,” she said.
    Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, said that in addition to Douglass’, the funeral for her cousin, the longtime Washington journalist Gwen Ifill, was also held at Metropolitan in 2016.
    Several people were stabbed during Saturday’s event, as pro-Trump supporters fought with counterprotesters amid anti-coronavirus restriction protests and a rally held by Trump’s supporters.
    NBC Washington reported Sunday that their conditions were critical but non-life-threatening. A man identified as Phillip Johnson, 29, was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with the quadruple stabbing, the station reported.
    It wasn’t immediately clear what led to the stabbing.