Posted on 08/07/2025 12:32:43 PM PDT by RoosterRedux
President Donald Trump’s proposal to federalize Washington, D.C., over rampant crime has been labeled authoritarian, but the federal government asserted control over the district decades ago to considerable success.
When D.C. was in a state of crisis in the 1990s, Congress passed two laws that federalized parts of D.C.’s criminal justice system and created the independent office of the chief financial officer (CFO). Violent crime proceeded to decline locally for the next several years, and the first mayor-appointed CFO, Anthony Williams, balanced D.C’s cratering budget. Williams later won two terms as Democratic mayor of D.C. in a political career credited with dramatically improving quality of life in the nation’s capital, according to The Washington Post.
High-profile crimes in recent years have brought back attention to D.C.’s governance, with notable incidents including a congressman getting carjacked in 2023, violent protests involving widespread vandalism of monuments in 2024, the murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers in May and the fatal shooting of a Capitol Hill intern in July. Democratic D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb has also drawn criticism for pursuing alternatives to incarceration in the name of reform, claiming in February 2024 that “we cannot prosecute and arrest our way out of” the crime problem.
The Constitution grants Congress authority over D.C.’s local laws and governance. Conservatives have called for more federal action against D.C.’s problems and renewed the idea on Tuesday after a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer was allegedly beaten and bloodied by a mob for trying to protect a woman from a carjacking. The Trump administration made plans to increase federal law enforcement’s presence in Washington on Thursday and Friday following the assault, CNN reported.
“If this continues, I am going to exert my powers, and federalize this City,” Trump [posted Tuesday on Truth Social].
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycallernewsfoundation.org ...
Hmmmm, what could be possibly be the cause of D.C. being a festering cess pool of incompetency, crime, and corruption?
White privilege?
Just the serfdom of loyal democrap followers being themselves.
The Constitution grants Congress authority over D.C.’s local laws and governance.
Needs to happen.
Who was president when that happened.
That detail was missing.
Clinton, I think.
Congress controlled DC from founding until 1973, as per the Constitution.
If the Fed takes over theFed will need another Lorton.
Congress can repeal DC home rule any time it wishes. That is precisely what it should do.
Anthony Williams did a superb job. Put partisan yin-yangs aside and give some credit where credit is due. Dealing with DC government is night and day different than back in the Marion Barry days. Systems have been modernized and employees actually know what they are doing. People are friendly. The waiting lines have almost vanished. Service is prompt and competent, and if the employee can’t help, he will usually be able to refer you in the right direction. Etc., etc.
The sullen and resentful attitude that was so common in the old days, and that still plagues too many government offices around the country, is partly/largely due to people being hired for all the wrong reasons and given a job beyond their capabilities and without adequate training and supervision.
The result, naturally, is that every interaction with a citizen who walks in the door needing whatever is a ritual humiliation. The employee knows he isn’t getting the job done. He knows he completely lost. And even if the citizen remains calm and friendly, the employees knows he has been exposed as an incompetent. And this happens all day, every day.
It is difficult to imagine anything more humiliating. This, by the way, largely explains the toxic attitudes of the grievance studies faculty in the universities. Fifth raters are hired for DEI reasons, and in every interaction with competent faculty, grad students and the brighter undergrads, the DEI guy knows he is the dullest knife in the drawer. He can commit seppuku. He can quit his cushy academic gig and find something he’s actually qualified to do — and remember, a lot of these people aren’t stupid; it’s just that at an elite institution, the guy with the 110 IQ is exposed when everyone else is 140 or above. The guy with the 110 IQ would do fine at many other things, and maybe earn more than he does as an academic on the AA track. Affirmative action takes people who would be perfectly fine graduates in whatever at Ohio State, Nebraska, or Georgia and go on to solid careers, and it sets them up for failure and resentment. This is disastrous for all purposes save one: to produce angry, radicalized leftist militants.
bkmk
My son lives in Arlington across from DC and he rarely goes to DC unless absolutely necessary. He had a friend who was a SS agent & could carry anywhere. My son has CC but only for Virginia. DC is tough to get.
That is incorrect, the District as a whole had an appointed government prior to 1871. However, the City of Washington, the City of Georgetown, Washington County had local elected governments until the municipalities were combined in 1871, as did the City of Alexandria and Alexandria County until retroceded to Virginia in 1846.
The plight of American hero "Big Balls" has set off a firestorm in the Republican Party.
Americans have HAD it with the violence happening in our great cities. This kid is a hero! pic.twitter.com/uiirDnufsQ— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) August 7, 2025
To quote the Constitution: “Article 1 Section 8 Clause 17 “To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District”
“Exclusive...all cases whatsoever” seems pretty exact to me.
Except that the founding generation, the people who wrote the Constitution, disagreed with you.
If I understand you, there were local municipal governments functioning while Congress controlled the government of the District as a whole. Sort of like the relationship between local governments and state governments. Then the municipalities merged and Congress ran the whole thing until the 1960s.
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