Donald Trump's decision to take control of Washington DC's police department and deploy the National Guard has been likened to a response to a fatal attack on a congressional staffer 33 years ago, but with a key difference: crime in the capital is now at a 30-year low.
The president announced the move on Monday, citing the assault on a former Doge staffer who nicknamed himself 'Big Balls', and the June killing of an intern in a drive-by shooting. He described the action as a 'historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor', calling it 'liberation day in DC'.
In 1992, the killing of 25-year-old Tom Barnes, a staffer for Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, prompted Shelby to introduce legislation to legalise the death penalty in the district. At the time, Washington had recorded 482 murders in 1991, earning it the title of the murder capital of the US. Barnes was shot in the head by a group of teenagers after refusing to hand over money; he died four days later, the 22nd homicide of the new year.
Shelby wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that the terror of living in a 'war zone' had led residents to reconsider the death penalty, using language similar to Trump's. His bill ultimately failed, but Congress forced a referendum on capital punishment in the district. Even home-rule supporters such as Leon Panetta voted in favour, saying that while DC should manage its own affairs, crime remained a serious problem.
By contrast, violent crime in Washington has fallen significantly. There were 187 homicides last year, and the city is on pace for fewer this year. The 1992 incident, which came from Congress rather than the White House, underscores the shift in federal intervention, though Trump's characterisation of the capital as beset by crime is widely seen as exaggerated.
