Jonathan Capehart:
Anyone who’s surprised that the president says Chicago is going to be next hasn’t been listening to him since he was president the first go-around.
I interviewed Mayor Bowser on my MSNBC show the weekend before he announced that National Guard troops are going in, and she said what she needed from the White House, what she would love from the president, 500 more police officers, one.
Two, what she would love from the president is help getting back the $1.1 billion in city funding that was snatched away from the District in the continuing resolution that avoided a government shutdown. That — if you — if the president is serious about fighting crime in the District, he would be a partner, a real partner, to Mayor Bowser in the two things that she wanted.
Now, there are National Guard troops here from West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee. According to a story in “Newsweek” last week, the top 30 cities of 100,000-plus with the most crimes of the population, Memphis, Tennessee; Cleveland, Ohio; Toledo, Ohio are one, two, and three.
Why aren’t the National Guard troops, the 150 from Ohio, the 160 from Tennessee, why aren’t they spread out all over the streets of Memphis, Cleveland, Toledo, Akron, Dayton, Nashville? If these governors, Republican governors, are serious about fighting crime, maybe they should look in their own backyard, and maybe the president should be working with the mayor and give her the 500 police officers she’s been demanding.
