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.”
