photo by Victoria Pickering
“Dear PoPville,
I saw this latest EO on “addressing crime” in DC and I can’t shake it – and I don’t understand why it’s not getting more attention.
In “Additional Measures to Address the Crime Emergency in the District of Columbia,” POTUS directs further action, including Sec 2(c) which states,
The D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force established in Executive Order 14252 of March 27, 2025 (Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful), shall establish an online portal for Americans with law enforcement or other relevant backgrounds and experience to apply to join Federal law enforcement entities to support the policy goals described in Executive Order 14333. Each law enforcement agency that is a member of the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, as well as other relevant components of the Department of Justice as the Attorney General determines, shall further, subject to the availability of appropriations and applicable law, immediately create and begin training, manning, hiring, and equipping a specialized unit that is dedicated to ensuring public safety and order in the Nation’s capital that can be deployed whenever the circumstances necessitate, and that could be deployed, subject to applicable law, in other cities where public safety and order has been lost.
This reads to me (esp. “other relevant backgrounds”) like an invitation to any person – well intentioned or not – with a firearm and a loose definition of “patriotism” to descend on our city to do who knows what. As a brown person (with a young brown child), I am VERY concerned about the danger this invites.
Maybe I’m overreacting but I truly don’t understand why people are not freaking out about this like I am!!”