DC Against Trump Coalition community police patrol historically Black neighborhood in Southeast DC

Washington, D.C. — On Friday, September 5, over 30 activists and community members assembled in Washington, D.C. ‘s Navy Yard neighborhood for a “mass cop watch” organized by the DC Against Trump Agenda (DCAT) coalition.

This cop watch is just one of many actions that the coalition has organized in weeks since President Trump declared that he would be federalizing DC’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and deploying the National Guard to the city.

“This is an occupation,” said Kristen Bonner, organizer for the DC Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (DCAARPR). “We are seeing heavily armed soldiers on our streets, our buses, and our trains. Sometimes as many as a dozen on a single block.”

“We’re out here tonight to stand between the people and the armed thugs that Trump has brought into our city,” Bonner continued. “Cop watch is exactly what it sounds like. We know these cops and guards are just looking for an opportunity to harass and attack our people, so we’re here to keep eyes on them and make sure these things won’t go down unseen.”

When asked why Navy Yard was chosen as the location of tonight’s cop watch, Terra Martin, community activist and mother of 17-year-old Dalaneo Martin, who was murdered by U.S. Park Police in 2023 said, “It’s gentrification. They want to lock up our children instead of acknowledging the root problem is that there’s nothing for them to do. You have all this classy, but they not welcome here. They want them just across the street, in the projects.”

The event began with a rally, with the co emcees for DCAT alternating chants of “DCAT! Fight back!” and “Fuck the police! Fuck the troops!” This was followed by speakers from coalition organizations and community members.

A member of Anakbayan DC connected the struggle against Trump’s occupation in DC to the historic struggle against martial law in the Philippines, saying, “It is impossible to look at the violent and excessive show of force by law enforcement and not see the parallels between this historic moment of occupation in D.C. and martial law in the Philippines. Just like during martial law, we now have roaming unidentified gangs grabbing people off the street, ripping people from their homes, their workplaces, their schools all without due process and under the guise of public safety.”

The crowd then broke off into groups and headed off to patrol the streets in several directions.

The crowd linked back up at the end of the night in front of five federal troops sitting on the street corner, who took out phones to record the sounds of the protesters. The crowd responded with chants of “Lazy racist crooked troops! Get a fucking real job!” and “Troops go home!”

DCAT has plans to stage further actions against the Trump occupation. Merawi Gerima, an organizer for DCAT declared, “We’re out to stop Trump’s racist occupation of our city. We’re going to fight until every one of his lapdogs is off our streets and the people of DC have real control over how they’re policed.”

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