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FIRST ON FOX: Law enforcement officials in Washington, D.C., have arrested more than 100 people since Aug. 7, Fox Digital has learned, as President Donald Trump cracks down on crime in the city.
Law enforcement officials have arrested a total of 103 individuals as of Wednesday morning since Aug. 7, which includes 43 who were arrested Tuesday, a White House official told Fox Digital Wednesday morning.
“President Trump’s bold leadership is quickly making our nation’s capital safer,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox Digital. “In less than one week, over 100 violent criminals have already been arrested and taken off of the streets in Washington, D.C. President Trump is delivering on his campaign promise to clean up this city and restore American Greatness to our cherished capital.”
Trump announced Monday that he was federalizing the local police department under section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which allows the president to assume emergency control of the capital’s police force for 30 days.
FBI DIRECTOR KASH PATEL BACKS TRUMP’S DC POLICE TAKEOVER: ‘WHEN YOU LET GOOD COPS BE COPS, THEY DELIVER’
Hundreds of National Guard members have since converged on the nation’s capital, as well as federal law enforcement departments such as the FBI, DEA, U.S. Capitol Police and ATF assisting with Trump’s law and order crackdown and sweeps of the city.
The first phase of the crime crackdown Monday resulted in 23 arrests, FBI Director Kash Patel revealed on X Tuesday.
“On the first big push of FBI supporting @POTUS @realDonaldTrump initiative to make DC safe again, FBI reported 10 arrests with partners,” the director wrote on X.
“These are just a few examples — we are just getting started,” Patel continued. “Federal partners joined local police and arrested 23 in total.”
“When you let good cops be cops they can clean up our streets and do it fast,” he said. “More to come. Your nation’s Capital WILL be safe again.”
The nation’s capital in the following years has been rocked by shootings that have left innocent children shot and dead, a trend of juveniles committing carjackings that have turned deadly in some cases, shoplifting crimes and attacks on government employees, summer interns and others, including the fatal shooting of 21-year-old congressional intern, Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, in June.
TRUMP ACTIVATES NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS TO ADDRESS ‘TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL’ CRIME IN WASHINGTON
Trump had threatened to federalize the D.C. police department in recent weeks, citing a spate of high-profile crimes that have left locals and visitors of the city dead or seriously injured, such as Tarpinian-Jachym’s killing, the fatal shooting of a pair of Israeli embassy staffers in May, and a brutal attack on a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer earlier in August.
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,” Trump said Monday. “And we’re not going to let it happen anymore. We’re not going to take it.”
Democratic lawmakers and local leaders have slammed Trump over the move, arguing crime has fallen in recent years following the wildly violent crime trends of 2020 that rocked cities nationwide.
WHITE HOUSE LAUNCHES FEDERAL SECURITY BLITZ AS PRESIDENT VOWS TO END DC ‘CRIME PLAGUE’
Trump described the federalization of the police as “Liberation Day in D.C.,” declaring, “We’re going to take our capital back.”
“We’re taking it back under the authority vested in me as the president of the United States, I’m officially invoking section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. You know what that is. And placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control. … In addition, I’m deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order and public safety in Washington, D.C. And they’re going to be allowed to do their job properly,” he said Monday.
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