The Canary in the Coal Mine Is Dead
Why so many dismiss the threat of authoritarianism.
Some on the left argue that the federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department in D.C. is nothing but a stunt, a distraction, an outrage printing press, but it’s a mistake to overlook how this action dovetails with the Trump administration’s broader intent: To federalize and weaponize law enforcement in an effort to consolidate power.
To that end, this administration has already:
deployed the Marines and National Guard in Los Angeles
gifted ICE an additional $75 billion in funding
expanded the 287 (g) program
took federal control over the Metropolitan Police in the nation’s capital
These moves blur the line between federal and state, expanding the bailiwick of federal agencies, which has been a consistent theme with this administration in spite of how volatile it appears from the outside.
Let’s speak plainly. Trump is creating a personal paramilitary force. This, it can no longer be argued, is fascism.
It won’t end in D.C., of course. Trump has already floated the idea of similar federal takeovers in New York City (the home of this dissident writer), Baltimore, and Oakland. A leaked DHS memo from last month served as foreshadowing. Run the pilot program, then expand.
This should sound the alarm for any who oppose this administration, but many continue to downplay and rationalize.
Rationalization #1: Crime in D.C. is bad.
This is a strawman argument used not just by conservatives but also by some liberals—an argument that deflects and provides cover for the larger threat: Trump’s brazen power grab. Liberal takeover apologists contend that by opposing the deployment of the National Guard and federal control of the MPD, the left finds itself on the wrong side of one of the most important issues for U.S. citizens: law and order. There’s only one problem with this argument: The takeover has nothing to do with law and order.
Some say crime in D.C. is down. Others say the reduction is negligible. Some point out that the reduced crime rate follows a 2023 spike in violent crime. Others question the legitimacy of D.C. crime statistics, suggesting the numbers misrepresent the reality or have been tampered with.
I don’t want to get lost in the weeds of crime statistics in D.C., but what I do know is that nothing in the stats warrants an immediate, drastic move like a federal takeover of the MPD. Plus, the timing is suspicious, just two months after the military deployments in L.A.
Two things can be true: D.C. can have a lot of crime, and the federal takeover can have little to nothing to do with fighting crime.
Let’s be real: Trump doesn’t give a shit about crime.
He pardoned insurrectionists who assaulted and injured 65 MPD officers on January 6th, the same police force he is now deputizing.
He calls immigrants criminals, animals, and vermin. Meanwhile, the actual data—ICE data, mind you—shows that those most represented in detention are immigrants with no criminal backgrounds.
They don’t care. They don’t care about due process and court orders. They don’t care if innocent people are abused and tortured. Trump and his band of detention farmers, like Stephen Miller, only care if they’re meeting their arbitrary detention quotas. Detention is big business. No wonder Stephen Miller has a stake in Palantir, a huge ICE contractor.
Rationalization #2: This was an ineffective political play.
Others maintain that boots on the ground in D.C. was a miscalculation by the administration, likely to galvanize a forceful resistance. We could debate the effectiveness of this particular move (I think protesters in the streets would be used by the administration to paint dissenters as lawless rioters and justify more federal takeovers), but I’m more concerned about the overall goal to weaponize and federalize law enforcement.
This administration lacks a consistent strategy, or at least a consistent application of a strategy—it’s hard to tell if that’s a function of gaps in coordination, internal dissent, or Trump going rogue—but its willingness to flout rules, laws, courts, convention, and decency far outweighs any lack of strategy. Turns out you can make a lot of moves when you’re not weighed down by pesky things like the Constitution and human rights. That ineptitude may end up being our savior is cold comfort.
Trump has been underestimated from the start. In 2015, he wasn’t considered a real candidate. He was a reality TV star. A sideshow. Cue his inauguration. He flirted with autocracy during his first term, but few took his public musings seriously. This time, armed with the knowledge of U.S. democracy’s points of failure and with dark money that has coalesced behind him, not to mention the cultural lurch to the right cultivated in no small part by Trump himself, this administration has been much more effective at pursuing its autocratic agenda.
If we rewound the clock to 2016, the public would be aghast by any president, left or right, executing federal takeovers of U.S. cities. It’s a testament to how inured to autocratic tendencies U.S. citizenry has become.
All of which leads me ineluctably to the following question: Why do so many still underestimate Trump and his cabal of kleptocrats?
I understand why his loyalists pooh-pooh the power grab, but why is a sizeable detachment on the left so cynical and apathetic about these developments? Why do so many refuse to see the growing number of warning signs? It’s hard not to arrive at the conclusion that is has to do with privilege.
The federalization and weaponization of law enforcement disproportionately affects Black people, Brown people, Muslims, noncitizens, the unhoused, the poor, and other vulnerable groups. In D.C., it’ll be no different. In fact, we’re already seeing it play out in predictable ways. Police are using excessive force on Black people. They’re collaring immigrants at Home Depot. Again.
This administration will say, as it always does, it targeted the criminals, even though it’ll be easy to disprove, as it always is, but it won’t matter. Many will refuse to believe innocent people got caught in the dragnet, despite the evidence, and even those who acknowledge the misfires will maintain that the result justifies the “collateral damage.” This administration, having stomped innocents and criminals alike, will lie and claim a historic victory. By the time the abuses become public beyond the communities affected, if they ever do, the damage will have been done.
Meanwhile, D.C. residents not part of those vulnerable groups may see a temporary dip in crime, not because anything will have been done to address the underlying issues driving poverty, homelessness, and crime (the gutting of Medicaid and SNAP programs will continue to harm people in need), but because fear and intimidation will reign. Those who come out the other side of the takeover with the feeling that things got better, their worldview freshly reinforced, will continue to believe Trump’s authoritarian schemes are nothing but political theater, never noticing that the canary in the coal mine is dead.