Chicagoans protest over President Trump's deployment of National Guard in D.C.
A new policy connected to President Trump's deployment of National Guard troops for public safety is sparking protests in Chicago and around the country.
National Guard troops have hit the streets in Washington, D.C., and are now patrolling at President Trump's direction. For the first time in U.S. history, police in the nation's capital are now under federal control.
"People are so happy to see our military going into D.C. and getting these thugs out," President Trump said Thursday.
On Thursday, a group gathered in Chicago's Federal Plaza and marched to protest the move, and President Trump's talk of similar moves in Chicago.
Meanwhile, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said violent crime in her city has reached its lowest levels in three decades.
"Right now, we have more police, and we want to make sure we use them," said Bowser.
Some D.C. residents strongly disagree with the idea too.
"But this sort of display is not designed to, you know, stop gun violence," said D.C. resident Marc Bernstein. "It's not designed to stop the drug trade. It's designed to intimidate people."
"We can always use more police, right?" aid D.C. business owner Darrell Gaston. "But I think having police officers that are from the community, that are trained locally, is much different than having a federal police that's not trained in community policing."
President Trump has also threatened to send troops to Chicago, and although he does not have the authority to do so, he has also vowed to end Illinois' cashless bail system.
"I'm calling on every Chicagoan every Illinoisan to resist returning to policies that lock up poor mostly Black and brown people simply because they cannot afford bail," said the Rev. Charles Straight.
President Trump also does not have the same authority to deploy troops in Illinois as he does in D.C.