Passive-Aggressive Won't Cut It

As Philip Bump notes, the issue over public safety in the nation's capital is heating up as

Governors of three states — Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia — are sending members of their state National Guards to D.C. to … well, theoretically to combat crime but, if the past week is any indicator, mostly to stand near tourist sites and wear uniforms.

This isn’t because there’s no crime in D.C. to combat (of course there is, as the right-wing media insists one acknowledge) but because the mission as established by President Trump isn’t really about that. Crime is simply the pretext Trump is using to put into effect his long-standing desire to deploy troops on the streets of D.C. Maybe it’s a lingering frustration from what happened in 2020; maybe it’s about pressing his thumb down on a city that voted heavily against him. Either way, it is not centrally about crime.

It's not centrally about crime but more like a trial run as

President Donald Trump said he might expand his crackdown on crime in the nation's capital to other major U.S. cities as he announced plans to send 800 National Guard troops into Washington, D.C.

Trump singled out New York City, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago and Oakland, California during a Monday, Aug. 11, news conference as potential future targets in what would be a drastic escalation of federal presence on the streets of American cities.

Nonetheless, Bump is right that it's partially about exerting control over a city demonstrably anti-Trump. New York City, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago, and Oakland all voted heavily against Donald Trump- as did the states of New York, California, Maryland, and Illinois.

The city of New Orleans (not exactly this City of New Orleans) also turned thumbs down on him. However, the governor of Louisiana is a Republican, as are the other top executive branch officials, both houses of the state legislature, and its two US senators. It routinely, routinely, and overwhelmingly, opts for the GOP nominee in presidential elections.

New Orleans traditionally is a haven of violent crime. However, as in Baltimore and some other major cities, violent crime is way down in 2025.  Its junior Senator:

 

If you don’t think Washington, D.C. has a crime problem, then try walking around H Street, Columbia Heights, or Navy Yard on a Wednesday night and see for yourself.

The tofu mob should be thanking President Trump for helping instead of having their 19th nervous breakdown. pic.twitter.com/bsmFGGbquc

— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) August 13, 2025

Senator Kennedy also has criticized Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and NYC Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani in an effort to ridicule the "loon wing" of the Democratic Party.  Always playing nice, the Democratic Party has not struck back, leading Steve M of No More Mister Nice Blog to argue

Imagine if Schumer surprised Kennedy by punching back. Imagine if he pointed out that Kennedy's home state of Louisiana has one of the worst crime rates in the country, and that his state's largest city, New Orleans, has the third-highest murder rate of any city in America -- more than twice as high as Washington's murder rate. Imagine if Schumer noted that a just-released study from WalletHub ranks Louisiana as the second-worst state to live in, a state that's dead last economically and second-to-last in terms of education and health. (To be fair, it's only 40th out of the 50 states in terms of safety.)

Leading Democrats have been relatively passive on this issue- and on most for the past four years or so. They have pointed out that Donald Trump, he of the pardoning January 6 criminals (and they can be called exactly that), is a world-class hypocrite on this subject. 

Democrats can hold Republicans such as John Kennedy responsible for the crime in their own jurisdictions.  Squeamish about that, they can deal with Republicans blaming Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton for virtually everything that goes wrong. Democrats then can move on to guns in the hands of juvenile offenders and challenge Republicans to do something about that. Democrats can do much more to turn the tables on the GOP, though the tea leaves suggest they won't.

                     

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