Trump’s Washington police takeover echoes history of racist narratives about urban crime

President Donald Trump has taken control of the District of Columbia’s law enforcement and ordered National Guard troops to deploy onto the streets of the nation’s capital, arguing the extraordinary moves are in response to an urgent public safety crisis.

Even as district officials questioned the claims underlying his emergency declaration, the president promised a “historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.” His rhetoric echoed that used by conservative politicians going back decades who have denounced American cities, especially those with majority non-white populations or led by progressive politicians, as lawless or crime-ridden and in need of outside intervention.

“This is liberation day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back,” Trump promised Monday.