FBI Director Kash Patel has come forward with a tally of 18 arrests in Washington, D.C. on Thursday night, with a little help from our friends in federal agencies. He speaks of eight firearms confiscated from those who walk on the wrong side of the law, a handful of illegal drug seizures, and a pair of arrests on warrants for heinous acts of murder and rape. Since President Trump’s initiative took flight, the count, by Patel’s tally, has surged past the 120 mark. “The good cops are getting the job done,” he asserts.
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb isn’t singing the same tune. On Friday, he filed a lawsuit against the federal government, claiming the Trump administration has reached far beyond its grasp, overstepping the bounds set by D.C.’s Home Rule Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and our nation’s guiding document, the U.S. Constitution. “Congress did not grant the President authority to displace the Chief of Police, assert operational control over MPD, or rescind MPD policies, as the Administration seeks to do,” Schwalb declared in a press release announcing the suit.
President Trump’s takeover of the police department is a historic maneuver, yet it has been a slow build, gradually bolstered by an increasing presence of federal law enforcement officials and National Guard troops as the week progressed. As we navigate these American crossroads, let’s not forget what’s at stake: our freedoms, our democracy, our shared sense of justice.
