White House and federal officials inquired about their power to take control of the Washington, D.C., police department but were rebuffed by city leaders.
John Falcicchio, chief of staff for Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, told the Washington Post on Tuesday that city officials pushed back and threatened to mount a legal challenge if federal officials attempted a takeover.
President Trump has pushed governors to get tough with protesters, telling them on Monday, “You have to dominate.” The district “was under very good control” but would soon be “under much more control,” he said. “We’re going to pull in thousands of people.”
In a Rose Garden news conference on Monday, Trump said he would take military action in cities if local leaders failed to end the violent demonstrations that have erupted in dozens of cities following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in the custody of the Minneapolis police last week.
Trump said he had “thousands and thousands” of “heavily armed” military and law enforcement personnel to end the protests. He told state governors who had declined the presence of National Guard officers that he would “quickly solve the problem for them” with U.S. military officers.
To take military action, Trump would need to use the Insurrection Act of 1807, a measure last invoked in 1992 during the Los Angeles riots following the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of Rodney King, a black man.
To invoke the Insurrection Act, Trump would first need to “issue a proclamation ordering the insurgents to disperse within a limited time, 10 U.S.C. § 334.4. If the situation does not resolve itself, the President may issue an executive order to send in troops,” according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.
