Trump’s takeover of DC policing is entirely sensible and a win for the people of Washington

Washington, DC’s political class may scream in fury at Team Trump’s takeover of policing, but we suspect most district residents will be relieved: Regular people put public safety first.

The city’s politicians have failed to do that, and the feds have a duty to act when the nation’s capital is unsafe.

Even Democrats have been willing to stomp on DC’s demands for “home rule” when it comes to fighting crime: By a vote of 81-14 in 2023, for example, the Dem-run Senate joined with the GOP-run House to override the City Council’s bid to reduce maximum penalties for violent crime, including carjackings — and President Joe Biden signed the measure into law.

Carjackings, for the record, are still triple the 2018 level, part of a grim wave of youth crime — yet city leaders have refused to get serious about stopping the violence.

Nor did President Donald Trump rush to do this: He warned Mayor Muriel Bowser last year that action was on the table; she’s had six months to turn things around — but several high-profile recent crimes, including last month’s shooting death of 3-year-old Honesty Cheadle, showed she needs help.

Indeed, as Trump noted, the US capital has more murders per capita than notorious Mexico City and Bogotá, Colombia. The homicide rate is six times New York City’s.

To drive crime down, this intervention will bring in new resources, including hundreds of National Guard and broader deployment of the federal Park Police.

Note, too: The feds share blame for DC’s high crime: The US Attorney for the District of Columbia is responsible for all felony prosecutions in the city — but Biden appointees to the job refused to prosecute over half of local crimes.

We hope neither the City Council nor Democrats (in Congress or neighboring Maryland and Virginia) try to sabotage this intervention. Everyone but the bad guys, and DC’s citizens most of all, is a winner if it succeeds.