In the Congress Heights neighborhood in the southeast corner of Washington, D.C., where there have been several murders and more than a dozen robberies so far this year, residents have greeted President Trump’s promise of liberation from crime with a mix of skepticism, suspicion and outright derision.
It’s not that they don’t believe crime is a problem in the nation’s capital. They know it is.
They just don’t believe the president cares — at least not about them. If he did, they asked, why are residents hearing of federal agents roving the whiter areas of 16th Street Northwest but less so in their largely Black neighborhood? Why are National Guard members posing with tourists at the Washington Monument?
“If Trump is genuinely concerned about safety of D.C. residents, I would see National Guard in my neighborhood,” said Karen Lake, 62, a lawyer who has lived in Congress Heights since 2017, in the far eastern corner of the diamond-shaped district. “I’m not seeing it, and I don’t expect to see it. I don’t think Trump is bringing in the National Guard to protect Black babies in Southeast.”
Mr. Trump might have found a more sympathetic audience in the distant Southeastern quadrant of the city, far away from the National Mall, the White House, or the restaurants and clubs of 16th Street and 14th Street, where a young employee of the Department of Government Efficiency recently was beaten in an assault that raised the city’s criminal profile to presidential level.
In neighborhoods such as Congress Heights and Washington Highlands, where the District of Columbia abuts Prince Georges County, Md., the city’s Black working class struggles with the twin challenges that have diminished the ranks of what was once, when Washington still had a majority Black population, affectionately called Chocolate City. There’s crime, for sure, but also gentrification driving Black residents into suburban Maryland and Virginia.
In Ward 8, where Congress Heights is found, there have been 38 homicides this year, according to data from the District of Columbia government. That’s almost 10 times as many as Ward 2, where the National Mall is located.
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The post Where D.C. Crime Is Bad, Residents Question Trump’s Motives appeared first on New York Times.
