Tension in the nation’s capital escalated over the question of who controls the city’s police department after Washington, D.C.’s Attorney General sued over the White House’s bid for full control.
Tension in the nation’s capital escalated Friday over the question of who controls the city’s metropolitan police department after Washington D.C.’s Attorney General filed a federal lawsuit challenging the White House’s bid for full control.
«These unlawful assertions of authority will create immediate, devastating, and irreparable harms for the District», AG Brian Schwalb said in his legal filing. «Most critically, the order threatens to upend the command structure of MPD and wreak operational havoc within the department, endangering the safety of the public and law enforcement officers alike.»
Local officials were clearly struggling to avoid this kind of clash. When President Trump said he was demanding authority over Washington D.C. law enforcement on Monday, Mayor Muriel Bowser signaled that the city’s leaders would comply with the emergency declaration by following White House directives.
But Bowser and Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith insisted operational control would remain in their hands.
Then late Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi triggered this latest escalation by moving to appoint an «emergency police commissioner», giving the job to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s top official, Terry Cole.
