Federal law enforcement officials and plainclothes agents joined with Washington D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department on Wednesday night in a mixed residential-commercial area of the city for one of the first police checkpoints set up after President Donald Trump's order to put the police department under federal control and deploy the National Guard.
The checkpoint, in the U Street corridor, attracted more than 100 protesters, who gathered to heckle law enforcement while they stopped some cars, flagging several for additional investigation, reports NBC News.
Members of the roughly 800 National Guard, activated this week to support the city's law enforcement, were not observed at the checkpoint. The Metropolitan Police Department has not commented on the checkpoint or whether anyone was arrested, but witnesses saw one car being towed away after its driver was arrested.
Earlier Wednesday, a White House official said that there would be a "significantly higher" National Guard deployment this week, with troops to expand their shifts from working only evenings to being out around the clock.
Meanwhile, some city residents are praising Trump's crackdown on crime in the nation's capital, while others are criticizing him.
Christopher Her, a Maryland resident who previously worked in D.C., said he knows "every inch" of the city and has seen the deterioration of public places.
"I couldn't be more encouraged by the fact that there are people now that really want to say, 'Stop, let's make this better,'" Her told NBC News.
But Morgan Komlo, who's lived in Washington for 10 years, disagreed with Trump's claims that the city is not safe, and called his press conference announcing the crackdown "scary."
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Tuesday called Trump's crackdown an "authoritarian push," but backed down slightly, conceding that he has the authority to carry out the executive order.
Federal data released in January shows violent crime was at its lowest level in 2024 in more than 30 years, and had dropped 35% from 2023.
But Trump pointed to several acts of violence while making the order to take control of the Metropolitan Police Department and deploy troops, including the shootings of a congressional intern in June and two staffers from the Israeli Embassy in May.
His directive to federalize D.C. police will last for a maximum of 30 days, unless Congress passes legislation extending that period.
The National Guard started arriving in the nation's capital on Tuesday, with roughly 30 troops joining Metropolitan Police Department officers in conducting anti-crime operations.
According to a senior Army official, the 800 troops that are expected should be operational by the end of this week, with 100-200 of them to support law enforcement at any given time.
Multiple officials told NBC News that their role will be to provide administrative help and protect federal property and personnel, not engage in direct law enforcement actions.
The Trump administration reports that federal law enforcement personnel have helped make more than 100 arrests since Monday.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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