As President Donald Trump declared Washington, D.C., a crime-ridden wasteland in want of federal intervention and threatened comparable federal interventions in different Black-led cities, a number of mayors in contrast notes.
The president’s characterization of their cities contradicts what they started noticing final yr: that they had been seeing a drop in violent crime after a pandemic-era spike. In some instances the declines had been monumental, due largely to extra youth engagement, gun buyback packages and group partnerships.
Now members of the African American Mayors Affiliation are decided to cease Trump from burying accomplishments that they already felt had been ignored. And so they’re utilizing the administration’s unprecedented regulation enforcement takeover within the nation’s capital as a possibility to disprove his narrative about a number of the nation’s biggest city enclaves.
“It provides us a possibility to say we have to amplify our voices to confront the rhetoric that crime is simply working rampant round main U.S. cities. It’s simply not true,” stated Van Johnson, mayor of Savannah, Georgia, and president of the African American Mayors Affiliation. “It’s not supported by any proof or statistics by any means.”
After deploying the primary of 800 Nationwide Guard members to Washington, the Republican president is setting his sights on different cities together with Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and Oakland, California, calling them crime-ridden and “horribly run.” One factor all of them have in frequent: They’re led by Black mayors.
“It was not misplaced on any member of our group that the mayors both had been Black or perceived to be Democrats,” Johnson stated. “And that’s unlucky. For mayors, we play with whoever’s on the sector.”
The federal authorities’s actions have heightened a number of the mayors’ wishes to champion the methods used to assist make their cities safer.
Some Locations Are Seeing Dramatic Drops In Crime Charges
Trump argued that federal regulation enforcement needed to step in after a distinguished worker of the Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE, was attacked in an tried carjacking. He additionally pointed to homeless encampments, graffiti and potholes as proof of Washington “getting worse.”
Nevertheless statistics revealed by Washington’s Metropolitan Police contradict the president and present violent crime has dropped there since a post-pandemic peak in 2023.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson scoffed at Trump’s remarks, hailing town’s “historic progress driving down homicides by greater than 30% and shootings by virtually 40% within the final yr alone.”
Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, the place homicides fell 14% between 2023 and 2024, known as the federal takeover nothing however a performative “energy seize.”
In Baltimore, officers say they’ve seen historic decreases in homicides and nonfatal shootings this yr, and people have been on the decline since 2022, in keeping with town’s public security information dashboard. Carjackings had been down 20% in 2023, and different main crimes fell in 2024. Solely burglaries have climbed barely.
The decrease crime charges are attributed to tackling violence with a “public well being” strategy, metropolis officers say. In 2021, beneath Mayor Brandon Scott, Baltimore created a Complete Violence Prevention Plan that known as for extra funding in group violence intervention, extra companies for crime victims and different initiatives.
Scott accused Trump of exploiting crime as a “wedge situation and canine whistle” fairly than caring about curbing violence.
“He has actively undermined efforts which might be making a distinction saving lives in cities throughout the nation in favor of militarized policing of Black communities,” Scott stated by way of electronic mail.
The Democratic mayor identified that the Justice Division has slashed over $1 million in funding this yr that might have gone towards group anti-violence measures. He vowed to maintain on making headway, regardless.
“We are going to proceed to intently work with our regional federal regulation enforcement companies, who’ve been nice companions, and can do all the things in our energy to proceed the progress regardless of the roadblocks this administration makes an attempt to implement,” Scott stated.
Neighborhood Organizations Assist Curb Violence
Simply final week Oakland officers touted important decreases in crime within the first half of this yr in contrast with the identical interval in 2024, together with a 21% drop in homicides and a 29% lower in all violent crime, in keeping with the midyear report by the Main Cities Chiefs Affiliation. Officers credited collaborations with group organizations and disaster response companies by town’s Division of Violence Prevention, established in 2017.
“These outcomes present that we’re heading in the right direction,” Mayor Barbara Lee stated at a information convention. “We’re going to maintain constructing on this progress with the identical complete strategy that received us right here.”
After Trump gave his evaluation of Oakland final week, she rejected it as “fearmongering.”
Social justice advocates agree that crime has gone down and say Trump is perpetuating exaggerated perceptions which have lengthy plagued Oakland.
Nicole Lee, govt director of City Peace Motion, an Oakland-based group that focuses on empowering communities of colour and younger individuals by initiatives comparable to management coaching and help to victims of gun violence, stated a lot credit score for the features on decrease crime charges is because of group teams.
“We actually wish to acknowledge the entire laborious work that our community of group companions and group organizations have been doing over the previous couple of years popping out of the pandemic to actually create actual group security,” Lee stated. “The issues we’re doing are working.”
She worries that an intervention by navy forces would undermine that progress.
“It creates form of an surroundings of worry in our group,” Lee stated.
Patrols And Youth Curfews
In Washington, brokers from a number of federal companies, Nationwide Guard members and even the US Park Police have been seen performing regulation enforcement duties from patrolling the Nationwide Mall to questioning individuals parked illegally.
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson stated the guard troops won’t be armed however declined to elaborate on their assignments to security patrols and beautification efforts.
Savannah’s Johnson stated he’s all for partnering with the federal authorities, however troops on metropolis streets just isn’t what he envisioned. As a substitute, cities want federal help for issues like multistate investigation and combating issues comparable to gun trafficking, and cybercrimes.
“I’m a former regulation enforcement officer. There’s a totally different talent set that’s used for municipal regulation enforcement companies than the navy,” Johnson stated.
There has additionally been hypothesis that federal intervention may entail curfews for younger individuals.
However that might do extra hurt, Nicole Lee stated, disproportionately affecting younger individuals of colour and wrongfully assuming that youths are the primary instigators of violence.
“Should you’re a teenager, principally you might be cited, criminalized, merely for being outdoors after sure hours,” Lee stated. “Not solely does that not remedy something in regard to violence and crime, it places younger individuals within the crosshairs of the felony justice system.”
A Recreation Of Wait-And-See
For now, Johnson stated, the mayors are watching their counterpart in Washington, Muriel Bowser, intently to see how she navigates the unprecedented federal intervention. She has been strolling a fantastic line between critiquing and cooperating since Trump’s takeover, however issues ramped up Friday when officers sued to attempt to block the takeover.
Johnson praised Bowser for carrying on with dignity and style.
“Black mayors are resilient. We’re intrinsically youngsters of wrestle,” Johnson stated. “We be taught to adapt shortly, and I imagine that we’ll and we’re.”