Walking the streets of downtown D.C., visitors and residents have lately encountered a new sight: armed National Guard members patrolling some of the capital’s most iconic landmarks. D.C. residents say that guard members often appear to be doing little police work and a whole lot of standing around.
Mark Liberman, a junior who resides in D.C., stated that the general consensus where he lives is that people are frustrated with the National Guard being there, and that “everyone gives them dirty looks. I try not to give them dirty looks because, really, they’re just following orders. It’s not their fault.”
He also noted that, in addition to frustration, many D.C. citizens also feel “confused” as to why there are “nine dudes in a D.C. metro station with AR-15s.”
As a follow-up to this statement, Mark added that if the Trump Administration continues to add national guard presence in other cities, such as Chicago, he thinks the reactions will be “the same, and that people are just going to say, ‘Why is this happening?’ And in all major cities, crime is a common occurrence. There’s no need to send a defense force for the entire country to a singular city to prevent crime, when that is the job of the police force.”
He added on to this, saying that he doesn’t believe the National Guard being a solution to the crime problem in major cities is “long-term.”
Finally, he remarked that the National Guard being in his neighborhood does not make him feel significantly safer than he would if they were not present. He said, “I feel like they should be stationed near other places in the city, such as Anacostia or someplace similar. I’ve seen that they’re in Georgetown, which I heavily question.”
Zemma Flynn ‘28, a Capitol Hill resident, described how “they kind of just stand around by the Washington Monument and go on their phones or talk to each other.”
Mobilized by President Trump, this unprecedented use of the military has reverberated across the D.C. region. In a city where 92.5% of votes cast in the 2024 state presidential election were for Kamala Harris, the reception to Trump’s takeover has been largely negative.
Around Union Station, protesters have confronted National Guard members in armed vehicles, expressing their anger towards the deployment and the President. Vice President JD Vance visited Union Station along with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, where they were met by rounds of loud booing from protesters in the station, according to PBS.
The Trump administration has pointed to D.C.’s crime levels as evidence of a need for federal intervention. In the executive order mobilizing the national guard, the administration asserted that “rising violence in the capital now urgently endangers public servants, citizens, and tourists.”
According to D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, violent crime in the district is, in fact, down 28% from last year.
D.C. residents in the SSSAS community spoke about their own experiences with the National Guard and their thoughts on the deployment.
“I’m afraid there’ll be an incident where a guardsman will make a mistake, and someone may be shot. I’m old enough to remember Kent State; the guard was there… Those guardsmen weren’t trained to deal with a crowd of students protesting a war. They were trained to fight soldiers. They had weapons and were shooting now. And I have complete respect for the guard, but I think they’re being asked to do something that they shouldn’t be asked to do,” explained AP Gov teacher Mr. Garikes.
“I think there’s a statistical and logical reality about that, which is D.C. has a crime problem like every city… I think it’s important for crime to be addressed. I don’t think the National Guard is the best way to address it, which is why I don’t feel safer with them around, but I also think that if anyone said crime in the city is not a problem, that would be silly. Of course, it’s a problem. We want our families to be safe,” remarked English teacher Ms. Nadler.
“Yeah, I feel like they haven’t had an effect; it’s more of a visual thing; there aren’t streets blocked off. If you drive by Union Station, there used to be Humvees outside, but now they have reduced all of them because I think they got some backlash. They haven’t actually done anything,” said Zemma.
“It’s not the mission of the guard to police the citizenry. The National Guard is supposed to defend the country and to be available for national disasters and things like that,” said math teacher Mr. Cortez.
Mr. Cortez said, “I think the tenor of my neighborhood has changed because people are walking around with rifles.”
Interviewees:
- Mr. Yoder
- Mr. Garikes (??) (ADEG)
- Juliana Summey
- Zemma Flynn
- Coen Mclean
- Khing Terrell
- Maybe the National Guard
- Mark Liberman
- Mr. Cortez
- Ms. Nadler
Research:
- DC suing trump admin – NYT
- Extending deployment – WAPO
- Estimated cost of $1 mil per day – CNN
- With no end in sight, National Guard troops deployed to DC grow weary – CNN
- What the National Guard and federal law enforcement can and can’t do in D.C. – CBS News – CBS
- Federal grand juries rejecting prosecutor’s indictments – NYT
- https://mpdc.dc.gov/dailycrime
Questions for DC residents:
- Has the national guard being in D.C. affected your day-to-day life?
- Have you interacted with any National Guard members?
- Do you feel safer with the National Guard in D.C.?
- Do you think D.C. has a crime problem?
- Large enough for the National Guard to get involved?
- Have you seen the National Guard actually doing anything? Or just standing around…
Questions for National Guard people:
Outline:
Intro paragraph with basic information, background on the situation, and the deployment
Move into all the interviews, intertwine with information, or compare/contrast with other interview ideas
If we get a National Guard interview
Senior Sunrise background, backlash for Lincoln Memorial.
Mr. Garikes:
Has the national Guard been in DC affected your day-to-day life?
No.
Have you interacted with any National Guard members?
I have observed an interaction the other day, but I have not personally spoken to anybody of the guard.
Do you feel safer with the National Guard in D.C.
No?
Do you think D.C. has a crime problem?
Yes.
Is it large enough for the National Guard to get involved?
The trouble is, in my opinion, National Guards, are trained to deal with crime. National Guard are supposed to national securities, they are citizen soldiers, who we send a war. There’s a difference in that training, and then arrest us citizen for a crime. They’re good people, they’re good patriots, they’re not trained to take care of crime in city streets. That’s not the job that they signed up for, and it’s not what they’re trained to do.
What do you think about them being in D.C.?
I think it’s more just a show of force by the president to make a point, and political point, as I said, were the worst crime happens in D.C., that’s not where the NASA Guard is patrolling. There patrolling the mall. I’ lived in D.C. 40 years. I’ve never felt unsafe on the mall. So I think they are more effective ways to fight crime. Right now, the city, I think there’s a billion dollars that Congress hasn’t given the city. Give us more judges, give us more police officers, get the DEAA, the ATF to work with the police. These are trained people. The guard is like I say, it seems to be more of a political statement to the President to mean anything else. Could be wrong, but that’s where it comes across to me.
Do you think that the general consensus in D.C. is that people are frustrated with them being there, or happy with them being there?
Oh, I’ve seen is some polls. I’ve seen as much as over 60% of the people in D.C, why they recognize crimes is a problem in the city. I’ve seen over 60% of the people feel like a guard is not helpful. Yeah. And that’s just a pull. I didn’t do it. I don’t know what the base is for it is.
Have you seen the National Guard actually doing any of the work they’re supposed to do, or have they been just standing around?
Oh, I’m seeing is walk down a couple streets, like say, last night, I was at a restaurant, 8th Street, southeast, the Marine Barracks is at the end of Bay Street. That’s where the Commandant lives. There’s. US. Marines have been there since Thomas Jefferson. Navy yards a little further down. There’s a lot of military presence already in that block, and I didn’t complete understand why the National Guard needed to walk that particular block.
Does the National Guard being armed make you feel more or less threatened?
Like. I’m not threatened. I more or less apprehensive. I’m afraid there’ll be an incident where a guardsman will make a mistake, and someone may be shot. I’m old enough to remember Kent State, the guard was there. There was protesting Vietnam War. The students were killed. Kent State University during the Vietnam War. Again, those guardsmen weren’t trained to deal with a crowd of students protesting a war. They were trained to fight soldiers. They had weapons who were shooting now. And I have the complete respect for the guard, but I think they’re being asked to do something that they shouldn’t be asked to do.
Do you think the reaction Chicago, if they bring them there, will be a different or similar?
I think it’ be different. Yeah. Chicago’s a different town in Washington, D.C. I’m fear there’ll be violence in Chicago. And there are more guns in Chicago, and they’ve got a crime problems in Chicago, but I. I think that’s a powder keg ready to explode. Do you think Trump keeps at National Guard to different cities? Where do you think he draws the line? I don’t know, you know, I can’t I would never venture to tell you what President Trump thinks. I don’t understand his policies. I don’t know what he’s doing. All right, do you guys have any. Do you have any concerns about, like, the grand juries that have refused to indict people? No. The The federal government. Why didn’t they presented the facts and grand juries are there to protect us against overzealous prosecutions and they seem to think maybe they were a little overzealous. So the grand jury are doing their job in Washington, D.C. It’s they’ there. That’s why they put them in the Constitution. Off the record, I don’t think anybody should throw a ham sandwich at anybody, but that’s with the grand jury thought to. How do you think the National Guard be in D.C impossibly other would be like remembered in American history 20 years now? Well, it depends on who writes that history. It could be written that this was a time where we stabilized our cities that we removed crime, that we got people out of the country that were troublemakers. It could be written that this is the time that the United States came close to authoritarianism and mysteries of our military. I do not know the answer to that at this point, but maybe it’ll be somewhere between those two extremes, but we’ll have to see how that history plays out. Yeah. Any other questions? All right, that’s. I givea record stories it’s
Zemma Flynn
OK, so question one has the National Guard in DC affected your day-to-day life?
No
Have you interacted with any national guard members?
No.
Would do you say you feel safer with the National Guard in D.C?
No.
Do you think D.C. has a crime problem?
No.. It’s just average. It wasnt realy like I had noticed it being super high before. THere had always been sketchy areas, but it wasn’t a big problem. There are probably other cities and states that have a higher crime rate.
Do you know any people who have been, like, interacted with the national Guard are affected by them?
Oh, I know that one of my dad’s coworkers knew somebody that like, was like, on the way to work and like, like, a sandwich at them. Um, like, they’re mad and they were, like, in their way or something, because they were trying to go specific to drink that couldn’t.
Have you seen the National Guard doing anything, or, like, patrolling in Capitol Hill?
They kind of just stand around by the Washington Monument and go on their phones or talk to each other; they just kind of stand around.
They just like, that’s it for my questions. If you want to add anything, you’re welcome to,.
Yeah, I feel like they haven’t had an effect, it’s more of a visual thing; there aren’t streets blocked off. If you drive by Union Station there used to be humvees outside but now they reduced all of it because I think they got some backlash. They haven’t actually done anything.
Do you think it’s political?
Yeah
Cortez:
has the National Guard being in D.C. affected your day to day life?
So I live down in Navy Yard, so I’m about three blocks from the ballpark. I would not say that it has affected my day to to day life in any way whatsoever. I mean, I see the National Guard a lot around, but, I mean, it’s just another group of people walking around. There’s, the tenor may have changed some. It’s different seeing people with rifles on their shoulders than just people walking around on the street.
Have you interacted with any members of the guard?
Only superficially, just to nod and say hello that kind of thing. And of course, my experience with the guard has always been, you know, everybody’s very collegial and gregarious and friendly and so it hasn’t been a big deal.
What do you say you feel safer in D.C. with the guard?
No. Yeah. No. And, I mean, well, for a number of reasons, I think. I mean, I don’t I don’t think the guard has.. One, it’s not the mission of the guard to police the citizenry. The National Guard is supposed to defend the country and to be available for national disasters and things like that. They are not, they’re not the city, the Metropolitan Police Department, and they, that’s just not in their wheelhouse, right? So I I don’t feel as if they are.. I don’t think that they have the ability to arrest people, to detain people. I don’t know. I think it feels like they may be, like I said earlier, I think the tenor of my neighborhood has changed because people are walking around with rifles. And so I think that just that show of force might be the intended effect.
Do you think D.C. has a crime problem?
Oh, I think I think whenever you put 9 million people in a concentrated area that there’s going to be crime problems. I mean,, I don’t. I don’t think any city is. I think every city goes through Ebs and flows of crime problems, whether it’s Oklahoma City, or Little Rock, Arkansas, or Jackson, Mississippi, or Washington, D.C., or Chicago, Illinois. there’s, I think all of those cities will have their crime problems, and sometimes they’re going up, and sometimes they’re going down for a variety of reasons., and I don’t I don’t think that seeing armed military people in the streets is a way to deter crime.
Have you seen any National Guard member make arrests or do anything?
I haven’t seen any other than just I mean, I haven’t seen them do anything, but, just walk the sidewalks, you know? And they’re doing this at the expense of their families and their jobs, you know, ’cause, of course, they’re doing their duty and what they’re being ordered and asked to do. and right now, it seems to be just walking around the ballpark and that guy so.
Do you feel like the National Guard Deployment has been useful in any ways?.
I mean, I don’t think it’s been useful in any way. I certainly think it’s been an expensive experiment, but I don’t don’t really think that it’s been very useful at doing anything. Although, maybe its intent is not to deter crime, but to deter protest or demonstrations or, I don’t know. But I don’t think it’s handling carjackings and violent assaults and things like that. And from what I understand, just because I don’t see the National Guard in areas where those things have been happening. It seems that the National Guards are stationed in areas where it’s highly visible. Around Nats Park and Ball games or the mall, the National Mall. So it doesn’t feel like its real intent was to deter crime.
Do you have a sense of what DC residents’ attitude is towards the deployment?
I mean, I think you would find a variety of responses. which makes sense. You know, because I think a lot of what you and I have been talking about are feelings, and it doesn’t necessarily make me feel safer, but it may make someone else feel safer. Whether it’s objectively safer is a different story, but how is it making people feel? I would say that of people that I know and speak to and live in my building and are out on the streets and stuff, that it, no one. I haven’t felt that there’s been a lot of antagonism toward the guard in particular. I mean, toward actual members of the National Guard at all, but they don’t feel like it’s made them any safer. But others may have a different opinion. I mean, you know, this is anecdotal, so.. Yeah. That’s it for my question. Yeah. So thank you very much for doing the interview. Of course.
Nadler
question number one is has the National Guard being in DC affected your day-to-day life? It hasn’t really affected my day to day life because they’re not particularly visible, in my neighborhood, which is Glover Park and are just below the cathedral. But it’s a major topic of conversation in my neighborhood and among the neighbors and on the neighborhood listers.
Have you personally interacted with any of the members of the guard?
I haven’t interacted with them. I was taking my kids to a camp on Capitol Hill and so we saw a lot of them and had to have conversations about what it all means. But I haven’t had any interactions with National Guards .
Would you say you feel safer with the National Guard in D.C?
No.
Do you think D.C. has a crime problem?
Uh, yes, I think, I mean, I think there’s a statistical and logical reality about that, which is DC has a crime problem like every city, the crime has gone down in the past few years, not up, which the numbers support. I think it’s important for crime to be addressed. I don’t think the National Guard is the best way to address it, which is why I don’t feel safer with them around, but I also think that if anyone said crime in a city is not a problem, that would be silly. Of course, it’s a problem. we want our families to be safe..
Um, Have you seen the National Guard actually doing anything? I’ve seen reports of them, like raking leaves or things that are not traditional police work.
I’ve mostly seen them hanging around. Yeah, around, um on the mall Yeah. Yeah, downtown or not downtown, but like, yeah, by the monuments and the tourist areas. It feels like they’re a little bit there to just be visible. Yeah, yeah.
Would you call it performative?
Um.. Maybe. I think a lot of policing is about presence. So performative isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I do think in this case it’s not.. I don’t think they’re in the places where crime needs to be addressed. So it’s performative, not in a way that is a deterrent to crime in my not particularly educated opinion about this, but like those are really safe areas. Yeah. Where they are. That’s all in my questions, but thank you very much for doing this interview. You’re welcome.
Mark Liberman:
Has the National Guard in DC affected your day-to-day life?
Not really, no.
Have you interacted with any of the National Guard?
Yeah. I talked to them a few times because, I mean, there were like five dudes with ARs right outside of the house, and so I was like, what’s up? Yeah. I was like, What’s up? They’re just hanging. That’s the thing. Like they’re just hanging out up. There’s really nothing for them to do near where I live. So they’re really just hanging out, talking to each other. So I was like, what’s? And they’ like, what’s up? And they pet my dog and stuff. Oh, nice.
Do you feel safer with the National Garden in D.C?
Not really. Where I’m at? Like, what are they really going to do, where I’m at? I feel like they should be stationed near other places in the city. Anacostia or something. Where I’m at, I feel like there’s really no point. Like, I see that they’re, like, in Georgetown, which is, like, why? That’s one thing for me. But I don’t really feel like I’ve seen them, like, I don’t feel safer with that. Yeah. Yeah.
Do you think it’s, like, more to show that we can do this rather than actual?
I think so. I think it’s more like a short-term thing because I think it’s not realistic to have the National Guard stationed in a city, the entire time, like forever. So I feel like it’s just, yeah, I guess to show like, hey, National Guards here. Crime is going to go down. But then once they leave, it’s you go back up, I guess.
Do you think DC as a whole has a crime problem?
I think that if you go to any city that’s big enough, there’s going to be crime there. So I think that it just comes with having an urban environment.
Do you think the crime ball is big enough for the National Guard to get involved?
I don’t. I think that the DC Metro police, whoever they’re called, do a good enough job or a well enough job where they wouldn’t need the National Guard to assist them. Yes. Well, I think that there could be some measures that would that are taken, that are like long-term measures rather than just sending the National Guard to watch over what’s happening. Yeah. I feel like I’ve improved some sort of stuff. I don’t know, but like in the police, if they improve some stuff..
Have you seen the National Guard actually doing anything, or have they just been standing around when you’ve seen them?
There was one time I saw them talking to a homeless dude, but that’s all. Everything else is just them, like. Was it Jake Moore?. No, every other time, it’s literally just like four of them. They’re either on the metro. Like, there’ll be like four of them in a metro station and then like five of them on the plaza of where the metro station comes out. So it’s like nine people just at one metro station with like ARs, which is pretty crazy, but they’re really just hanging out, just like standing around.
Do you think they must be armed?
Like, it’s kind of, I mean, I don’t like, I don’t understand why they have ARs. I don’t understand why they have AR-15S when it’s like, what are you going to do with an AR that you can’t do with a pistol? A taser. Or a taser. We’re not getting invaded or anything. It’s not. They’re not coming to the metro station. It’s not a zombie apocalypse. It’s like apocypse, what it is. No, there’s, yeah, I think that is a little, it’s a little jarring to see, like five dudes with ARs right outside your house, but yeah. Like, that’s one thing I don’t understand, why they need that. Those guns like that. Yeah. Obviously, you’re a kid, so I’m not sure how well you’re going to be able to answer this, but
Do you think that the general consensus in DC is that people are frustrated with them, being there?
Yeah. Yes, everyone’s frustrated. Everyone gives them dirty looks.. I try not to give them dirty looks because, really, they’re just following orders. It’s not their fault. Yeah. But, definitely, people are frustrated, and definitely people are just like, like confused, I think. Yeah. Just like why there are nine dudes in a metric with ARS.
So you’ve heard, I’m wondering, have you heard the news about maybe Trump sending them to Chicago or other states? Do you think that the reaction there will be similar or different?
I think it’s going to be the same. I think people are just going to be like, Why is this happening? And in all major cities, there will be crime. There’s no need to send a literal, like, guard force for the entire country to a city to prevent crime when that is the job of the police force. And I also think that I just don’t think it’s long-term. Like, I think we should make long-term choices instead of short-term ones. Yeah. All right.
