Protesters gathered around an array of law enforcement officers, including homeland security agents, who set up a police checkpoint Wednesday night in the busy U Street corridor in Northwest Washington, as President Trump’s takeover of law enforcement in the nation’s capital continued to ramp up.
Chanting “Go home fascists,” the protesters implored drivers to turn away from the checkpoint on 14th Street, warning them that they could be stopped for any number of infractions, which included not wearing seatbelts or busted taillights.
Earlier, teams of federal agents and local police officers rolled out of the parking lot of a U.S. Park Police facility in Southeast Washington. Scores of National Guard troops gathered on the lawn of the facility by a U.S. Marshals tent, and hundreds of official vehicles filled the parking lot and grass outside the facility in the Anacostia neighborhood.
With about 800 National Guard members, 500 federal law enforcement agents and Washington’s municipal police department, under his command, Mr. Trump, who announced the federal crackdown on crime in the capital on Monday, has vowed that the city would be “essentially crime-free” under his watch.
In the next day or two, the D.C. National Guard will build up to sending out about 100 to 200 soldiers at any given time in support of federal law enforcement officials, Col. Dave Butler, an Army spokesman, said Wednesday. City officials have said the National Guard troops would not have the authority to make arrests. They began arriving on the streets Tuesday evening.
Speaking at the Kennedy Center earlier Wednesday, Mr. Trump appeared to suggest that he could maintain oversight of crime-fighting in Washington beyond the 30 days that the law allows his administration to be in control of the D.C. police.
While the president has described the city in apocalyptic terms as a crime-infested wasteland, violent crime in Washington fell to a 30-year low last year and has continued to fall sharply this year.
At least 66 people have been arrested in Washington since Monday, according to federal officials. A federal task force that includes some local officers made 23 arrests on Monday evening, said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. On Tuesday, 43 more people were arrested, according to Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director. He said that the F.B.I. had assisted in 18 arrests so far this week, on charges that included unlawful gun possession, assault with a dangerous weapon and theft.
By comparison, in the first 10 days of August 2024, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department made 635 arrests, or about 63 per day, according to department statistics. About 10 percent of those arrested were juveniles. The number of crimes recorded during the first 10 days of August was virtually the same this year as last year.
Washington’s Democratic mayor, Muriel Bowser, has shifted her stance on the president’s takeover several times, initially criticizing it, then saying she would try to make good use of the federal law enforcement help, then condemning it Tuesday night as an “authoritarian push” and an “intrusion on our autonomy.”
By Wednesday morning, she had softened her tone again and suggested in an interview on Fox 5 Washington that additional federal resources could help drive down crime.
Ms. Bowser deflected questions about whether she believed the president’s crackdown was good for the city and pointed instead to the need for more money to recruit and retain municipal police officers. “To the extent that you see the federal surge creating more arrests, taking more guns, M.P.D. officers would do the same thing,” she said.
When asked where her relationship with the president stood, Ms. Bowser responded: “I’m the mayor, and he’s the president. That’s always been our relationship.”
Katie Rogers and Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports on national stories across the United States with a focus on criminal justice. He is from upstate New York.
Ashley Ahn covers breaking news for The Times from New York.
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