‘What’s Not To Like About That?’: Former Capitol Police Chief Tells ‘Morning Joe’ Trump DC Crackdown Is On Point

Always in His Presence said:

A "beat cop" is a police office who walks or drives a daily beat - a certain area of the city.

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The idea is that residents and tourists would awake Thursday morning to the sight of military presence, according to a person familiar with the effort.

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Always in His Presence said:

The National Guard does none of that, they are a backup, or reinforcement to aid the Police because

• According to the DC Police Union, MPD is operating with fewer than 3,200 sworn officers, marking its lowest staffing level in 50 years.
• MPD is approximately 500 officers short of its 4,000-officer allotment.
• Officers are stretched thin, logging nearly 2 million overtime hours last year—four times the average—which has led to exhaustion and reduced effectiveness.
• A recent study found a shortage of 65 detectives, with 52 needed in the Criminal Investigations Section.

Unequivocally NO - they are not beat police and the city is understaffed by 500 officers. In a city of 680,000 - that is a big number.

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RocksInMyHead said:

They are doing that. National Guard troops are being put out on the streets to patrol specific areas and "show the flag," so to speak. From one of the articles I linked earlier:

But again, whether or not they're truly "beat cops" is irrelevant to the point I was making. Soldiers are being used as an element of law enforcement. That is authoritarian.

If MPD being understaffed is the root cause of the issue, why did Congress - with Trump's support - cut DC's budget by $1 billion? Why are no measures to solve the issue being discussed? Unless the goal is to permanently use federal agents and the military to police the city? Which would, again, be authoritarian.

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