Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser responds to the federal takeover of the Districts Metropolitan Police Department. Here are quotes from the conference.
Why it matters: Mayor Muriel Bowser acknowledged Trump’s broad emergency powers while defending MPD amid a federal takeover, despite violent crime dropping 26% citywide.
Trump’s authority is extensive. “Home rule charter gives the president ability to determine the conditions of an emergency and we can contest that, but the authority is pretty broad. He can put the meat around what he thinks is an emergency.”
This isn’t routine federal support. “It’s not like the special events task force. I don’t want to minimize what was said, I don’t want to minimize the intrusion on our autonomy because it is very different than working a special event.”
Bowser warns of potential disasters. “What could be a disaster is If we lose communities who wont call the police.. if communities wont talk to the police if a crime has been committed and could help solve that crime.. that could be a disaster.”
Mayor plans to end “so called emergency.” “So we are gonna work every day to get this emergency put to an end “ill call it the so called emergency” “and continue to do our work.”
DC has existing crime surge tools. “We know the tools the available to the district if we are having a surge in crime – curfews, council to pass emergency legislation, congress for additional funds, we’ve done all of those things.”
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