As Donald Trump convened reporters at the White House on Monday morning to announce his plans for sending the National Guard onto Washington, D.C., streets and taking over the police department, protesters gathered a block away to denounce what they saw as his plans to put the federal district under his control.
“Nothing Trump is doing right now is about our safety,” Keya Chatterjee, executive director of Free DC, a group advocating for the city’s autonomy, told the 200 or so people gathered on a block of 16th Street Northwest, The Guardian reported.
“What we know from history is that authoritarians always want to control the capital and the people in the capital city. It’s because it’s the fastest way to silence dissent and to accelerate their agenda. And I want to be clear, this is not about crime. This is about what Trump is trying to do to DC in order to take over DC and silence us.”
