Trump: Now the Cops Can 'Do Whatever the Hell They Want' -- The American Prospect

[erronis]

https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2025-08-12-trump-federalizing-washington-dc-police/
Harold Meyerson

In federalizing the D.C. police, Trump seeks some state-sponsored violence.

Some tweets on The Washington Post’s website today reported that FBI and ICE agents were on Washington’s U Street corridor (a center of Northwest D.C. nightlife) last night, and made an arrest at 15th and U. My own one-man U Street patrol last night, however, came too late to find any action at all, though I traversed that same 15th Street corner. Even U Street, apparently, is quiet on Monday midnights. I flagged down one cop in a passing patrol car and asked if there were National Guard or other agents out there. She told me if there were, I wouldn’t see them; they’d be “blending into the walls.” Which meant no Guards, but maybe plainclothes FBI, whom perhaps I had mistaken for the handful of guys sitting on bus benches waiting disconsolately for the 12:20 to Anacostia. An FBI agent dragooned into midnight outdoor duty on a steamy D.C. August night wouldn’t have to work hard to look disconsolate.

So far, Trump’s takeover of the D.C. cops and militarization of the city is conceptually both outrageous and dangerous, while in actuality, a good share of it is still blending into the walls. The number of uniformed Guardsmen who’ll be deployed at any one time is supposed to number 200, clustered around prominent intersections and providing some kind of ill-defined support for the police. They have no power to make arrests, while roving FBI and ICE agents do have that power. What that means is that, as was definitely not the case in Los Angeles in June, Trump’s legions will not be assembled en masse or storming places of work to make mass arrests. Their deployment is a wholesale outrage on a retail scale.

. . .

Just as the presence of troops in L.A. provoked protests, so Trump is hoping that the quality of his now enhanced D.C. policing will provoke protests even if the quantity of newly deployed troops and agents isn’t in itself up to the task. In his press conference yesterday, he all but ordered the cops to run amok. Currently, he said, “they’re not allowed to do anything. But now they are allowed to do whatever the hell they want.”

[Volaris]

1. '...whatever the hell they want...'

My bet will be 'whatever the hell they want' will absolutely involve quite a bit of malicious compliance...Bondi has just been put in charge of a major city police force...every beat cop for 50 miles should be calling HER OFFICE cause they need the day off next week to go get a kid to their Dr.Appt, etc.

And this is to say NOTHING of the hundred FBI agents who have to now drive patrols ON THE FUCKING NIGHT SHIFT LOL!...does anyone REALLY THINK those federal professionals are gonna give one limp fuck who's selling pot in DuPont Circle at 2 in the morning on a Wednesday??

Not a fucking chance in hell.

[erronis]

4. The dissatisfaction in the usual LEO ranks will grow. Perhaps that's also part of the purpose.

Every thing that this regime is doing is leading to fracturing of our social structure.

I think I'll go back to just reading dystopian SF novels for relief.

[Volaris]

7. I think maybe fractures might be good?

You don't know the weak spots for repair until the concrete starts to crack; knowing where to pour the repair cement now is a constitutional roadmap that we've always needed, but never required. Trump can't break it totally, though, and here's why:

What Trump needs to accomplish is impossible. Essentially--and I'll put it in WWE terms that even his shrinking brain can grasp--Trump needs to win an 'I quit' match.

Against the American People.
Who have been here for 250 years.
Who believe the words 'fuck you, make me' serve as an Unoffical National Motto

Hes gonna push, and break his shortassed little fingers on the WALL of 'fuck you, make me', because he can't do math. There's 200 million of us, and maybe (maybe) there's a thousand maga idiots in each state that would take a bullet for him.

And everything that gets us there, is just a map to pour concrete

[erronis]

8. Interesting and somewhat positive viewpoint. I worry about those that fall through the cracks, too.

When those big monolithic chunks of concrete (or marble) crumble, we could also fill the gaps with something less inflexible - perhaps more accommodating of changes over time.

Or we might look at the fragments and ask ourselves, how best to re-arrange given the lessons learned over the last 250 years.

(I've exhausted my metaphor quota for today.)

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. lol they always have

[Celerity]

3. kick

[bucolic_frolic]

5. I think it's a powder keg

but on the plus side there's no need for them, so maybe they'll just be an expensive sideshow

[bluestarone]

6. Whatever they want to do?

Ok, ARREST tsf now.