Trump’s DC takeover returns to a dark event 33 years ago – Crime is much worse | Washington DC

Donald Trumptake over Washington, DCThe attack by a front porch staffer inspired the police department and the decision to deploy the National Guard, who called himself the “big ball.” Thirty-three years ago, the fatal attack on congressional staff also sparked federal efforts to impose law and order on the national capital – but in this case, it comes from Capitol Hill.

On Monday, Trump said he was taking “a historical action to save the capital of our country from crime, bloodshed, bedridden and dirty, among others.

In 1992, the death of 25-year-old Tom Barnes, a staff member of Democratic Senator Richard Shelby, prompted senators to introduce legislation to legalize the death penalty in the area. Shelby, a conservative Democrat Become a Republican in two yearsacknowledging that many DC community leaders have historically opposed the death penalty, but believe that the trend has changed – using a similar dystopian language to resemble Trump.

“The horrors brought about by living in war zones have caused many residents to reconsider the appropriateness of the death penalty, both morally and legally,” Shelby wrote in the family. March 1992, Washington Post Major. “…People are using guns to resolve arguments about clothes and girlfriends. They are smoking because they feel like that. If they don’t like the way you look at them, they’ll even ‘in’ hats’.”

Trump cited attacks on Edward Coristine when he announced his takeover of police on Monday He said “Beat by a group of wandering thugs” and “dripped in blood”. He also mentioned that Eric Tarpinian-Jachym in June killed an intern with Kansas Republican Representative Ron Estes, who was killed by Crossfire during a drive-in shooting. Last week, his mother, Tamara Tarpinian-Jachym, told ABC News She supports Trump’s idea of federal takeoverhe is Social Media Posts.

There is a key difference between then and now: Trump painted an exaggerated crime situation in Washington, D.C. Violent crime is at a 30-year low. But as early as January 1992, Washington was indeed a city plagued by crime. In a year, there were 482 murders in 1991, winning the title of ignorance The murder capital of the United States. By comparison, there were 187 homicides last year, and the city’s pace is getting lower and lower.

According to the book “City of Dreams: Race, Power, and Decline” Washington, DC Shelby employees Harry Jaffe and Tom Sherwood of Barnes left their home one Saturday night in January 1992, headed to the Corner Store and went to the cafe the next morning. A group of teenagers approached him and asked for his money, or they “put on their hats.” “Let me be alone,” Barnes replied, then went out to the streets. One shot him into the head, putting him into a coma. Four days later, he passed away, marking the 22nd homicide of the New Year.

Capitol rage, titled on Tuscaloosa News Edited in two days. “Defying by drug-related violence, Washington has become a national shame and an embarrassment for the United States,” the newspaper declared.

“Tom’s death is the catalyst for my involvement in trying to find solutions to violent crime that plagues our city,” he has known since Barnes was a toddler.

His bill to sentence DC to death failed, but he did make a congressional vote to force the city to hold a referendum on that fall vote, demanding that Washingtonians authorize the death penalty. “In this city, the criminal justice system is out of control and Congress won’t refuse on this issue,” Shelby said. Even some family rules champions on the hill voted with Shelby, such as Leon Panetta, a Democratic representative from California.

“I really think the District of Columbia should handle its own affairs,” Panetta said, who went on to serve as CIA Director and Secretary of Defense Bill Clinton as Chief of Staff. “But crime is still a very serious problem in the region. Partly it is the urban crisis, part of the social and economic problems of every city. But I don’t feel the strong commitment of the region to face this problem.”

The Washington, D.C. Commission abolished the death penalty in 1981, but Washington’s last execution occurred in 1957, a few years before the city won family rule in 1973.

This week, Washington leaders put a burden on Trump’s takeover of the police. Eleanor Holmes Norton, no-vote representative for the House DC, Call it “Historical Attack on DC’s Family Rule”, and Mayor Muriel E Bowser, Describe it As “uneasy and unprecedented”.

There was the same visceral response to Shelby’s death penalty referendum.

“On the voters in the region, their power is not in power, Congress forces our power to anger,” Norton saysat that time she was in Congress. “When you vote for the death penalty, you are directly involved in the issue.”

Dozens of ministers condemned the referendum in Sunday’s sermons ahead of referendum According to the Washington Post.

November 3, 1992 – Democrat Bill Clinton won his first presidential election that day – the Washingtonian rejected a 2-1 death penalty referendum.

“Today, voters conveyed a message to every member of the U.S. Congress that we are citizens of this country,” then mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly said after the vote, saying that the city “will not tolerate interference outside.”

But the atmosphere of fear of crime has won some support for the death penalty.

“Among the rich and poor, black and white people throughout the city, some residents believe that violence has become so random and cruel that convicted killers should be punished by the ultimate act of retribution, whether it is a deterrent or not,” the Post reported. But others expressed concern that it would unfairly use it with black defendants, or dislike Congress voting on city affairs.

Even City Council President John Wilson, who supports the death penalty, urged as a symbol of independence in Washington, D.C. (Today, the Town Hall is named after him.)

“That’s not to say they don’t prefer the death penalty,” Jaffe and Sherwood wrote. “Many black Washingtonians are very conservative, advocates of law and order … they are just displeased with a white senator in Alabama, telling them they need the death penalty to make the streets safe.”

Today, the white president in New York must have had some grievances, saying he wanted to clear the city streets. Bowser is using it to rally support long-standing DC national goals.

“My message to residents is: We know that getting our democracy is trivial,” he said. She said at a press conference After Trump took over. “That’s why you heard me and many Washingtonians before I advocate for the whole status of the District of Columbia. We are American citizens. Our families start war. We pay taxes, and we maintain our responsibility to citizenship.”

• Writer and historian of sports and politics Frederick J. Fremer