As a former Washington, D.C. cop who has responded to countless homicides and other crime scenes during midnight shifts, the current federal takeover of the capital city is a welcome sight.
The story of D.C. is a depressing one, comprised of violent, crime-ridden neighborhoods marked by the highest degree of human despair, in which many people fear leaving the confines of their homes to avoid becoming a crime victim. Yet, these are also communities filled to the brim with countless good and hard-working people. They, like me, welcome the federal government’s intervention via federal law enforcement officers and the D.C. National Guard.
As a Metropolitan Police Department officer in the southeast and northeast quadrants of the District, I would regularly hear gunshots as I sped in a beat car toward the scene, sometimes even running toward them on foot. I have arrived at these scenes on the heels of a fresh kill. The victim on the ground, grotesquely contorted, calling to me in their final moments. I sometimes arrived as the blood was spilling rapidly from a visible hole in the head, among other gruesome presentations.
Sometimes I would encounter a gunman (or gunmen), while other times I would see mothers overwhelmed with grief, screaming and crying as their son or daughter, who simply went to the supermarket to buy milk, was gunned down by thugs.
The homicides that had the most impact on my psyche were the robbery victims. One was a 13-year-old girl who refused to give up her winter jacket. Just as painful were the strewn, bloodied bodies of delivery persons and Uber-like drivers killed by robbers. So, yes, I am 100 percent in support of President Trump’s takeover of the D.C. MPD. I want the “Crews” gone. (D.C.’s name for thugs and gangs).
D.C.’s crime problem is not the fault of its police officers, whose force is understaffed by nearly 1500 officers. Violent crime was so rampant and occupied so much of our shifts that we hardly had time to stop for bathroom breaks. Blame the inept D.C. politicians. Mayor Muriel Bowser is more concerned with sending her children to camp 11 hours away in Martha’s Vineyard than protecting D.C. residents.
The people protesting the federal takeover of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department are not the black people who live in D.C.’s crime-ridden neighborhoods. Rather, they are the left-wing white and black D.C. middle class (including the mayor) who are often spared the fear that most of D.C.’s black residents live with daily. The Democratic politicians in their frivolous opposition to federal resources, inclusive of law enforcement officers and federalized Guard members bolstering the MPD, are walking a tight rope. Their black constituents want more law enforcement officers, and for now, until D.C. gets its act together and hires more police officers, people who have lived in fear are welcoming the help of the federal government.
Of course, I have concerns that federal officers without experience as municipal police officers may not be a good fit for urban policing. Knowing how to deliver police services in America’s cities — especially in ghettos — is a skill. No career with the FBI or DEA will prepare you for being that kind of street corner conflict resolver role intermixed with crime-fighter duty.
And yet, those concerns are totally eclipsed by the desperate situation the District and its officers have been thrown into by incompetent leaders. Additional officers are needed immediately in D.C., even if they are of the federal cloth. And I trust that many federal officers will adapt to the rigors and nuances of big city policing in due time, especially when they have only seconds to prepare for the next dispatch, whatever it may be.
Christopher Cooper, a former DC (MPD) Cop; U.S. Marine; and is a Fraternal Order of Police Legal Defense Plan Attorney based in Chicago & N. Indiana.
