{"id":1500,"date":"2025-08-17T04:47:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T04:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmgiveawayfinder.com\/?p=1500"},"modified":"2025-08-17T04:47:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T04:47:05","slug":"as-feds-flaunt-trumps-takeover-dc-pushes-back-mother-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmgiveawayfinder.com\/?p=1500","title":{"rendered":"As Feds Flaunt Trump\u2019s Takeover, DC Pushes Back \u2013 Mother Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t<\/p>\n

Protesters by National Guard troops outside of Union Station in Washington, DC, on August 15.<\/span>Bryan Dozier<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Get your news from a source that\u2019s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily<\/em>.<\/a><\/div>\n

In a small park<\/span> in northwest Washington on Friday, a group of what appeared to be eight federal agents posed for a picture in front of an anti-ICE banner. Then they tore down the sign and departed with it. In its place, they appeared to have left a dildo.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

As if this week were not bizarre enough: Mount Pleasant residents tell me a group of federal agents gathered for a photo-op near a pro-immigrant banner, pictured below, then tore it down.<\/p>\n

In its place, they left a dildo. A neighbor’s Ring camera captured the whole thing\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/YbXmFMwL6S<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Alex Koma (@AlexKomaDC) August 15, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

We can\u2019t be sure how much thought the feds gave to their actions. <\/strong>But by removing a banner because they didn\u2019t like what it said, then depositing a rubber dick in a park frequented by children, they crisply conveyed what Donald Trump\u2019s occupation of DC is really about.<\/p>\n

The agents were not there to stop crime. Instead, they communicated to the mixed leafy neighborhood of Salvadoran immigrants and progressive-leaning townhouse residents that Donald Trump has the power to override their rights and democracy in the left-leaning district. Or, basically, suck our dildo.<\/p>\n

National Guard troops parked<\/a> by monuments and museums in downtown DC are far from the spots where the worst local crime occurs, but well placed to alert tourists that the president has the power to occupy the district with troops. The dismantling of homeless encampments, without planning<\/a> for where the residents will go, does nothing to address homelessness or the fentanyl crisis in the district, but it does remove signs<\/a> of poverty from the route the president takes on his way to play<\/a> golf.<\/p>\n

Less than a week into the occupation, Trump\u2019s display of authoritarianism, famously greeted<\/a> by a Subway sandwich-chucking now-former DOJ employee, is still ramping<\/a> up. But it is facing mounting pushback from DC residents.<\/p>\n

On Friday, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, after waffling slightly between defiance and efforts to maintain cordial relations with the White House,\u00a0moved toward opposition. The district sued<\/a> to block Trump\u2019s effort to seize control of its Metropolitan Police, arguing that Attorney General Pam Bondi\u2019s attempt to install Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terry Cole as head of the force was illegal. DC got a quick, if partial, victory on Friday, when Judge Ana Reyes persuaded<\/a> the DOJ to walk back Bondi\u2019s order and remove<\/a> Cole as de facto head of the department.<\/p>\n

Reyes said the White House can ask DC police for help, but cannot simply dictate their policies. \u201cThe statute would have no meaning at all if the president could just say, \u2018we\u2019re taking over your police department,’\u201d Reyes said. Reyes did not rule on whether Trump can compel DC police to enforce federal immigration laws, but said she believed the president does have some power to enlist local officers for immigration actions.<\/p>\n

Bowser\u2019s pushback clearly reflects pressure from DC residents. Red \u201cFree DC\u201d signs distributed<\/a> by a local nonprofit are rapidly multiplying in yards around the city.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday night, <\/strong>a federal checkpoint at 14th<\/sup> and V Streets NW near a popular nightlife area drew<\/a> a crowd of protesters, including residents who made hand-held signs warning drivers to avoid the agents, and heckled the federal agents, chanting \u201cshame\u201d and \u201cgo home.\u201d Onlookers cheered <\/a>as local police, who had accompanied the feds, departed.<\/p>\n

Tensions continued Friday night. Steven Rangel, 21, said he was walking along 14th<\/sup> St, NW, around 9:45 p.m. with a poster and megaphone announcing the presence of ICE agents nearby when a man tore up his poster. Rangel said the man had repeatedly indicated he had a gun on his hip and threatened: \u201cIf you come closer I\u2019m going to shoot you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than half a dozen bystanders yelled for the nearby Homeland Security agents to intervene, but according to Rangel, \u201cThey just stood there.\u201d The agents, supposedly on the streets to prevent crime, told Rangel to call 911, he said.<\/p>\n

Later a Mother Jones<\/em> reporter saw the man who attacked Rangel smashing what appeared to be a camera or cell phone he had taken from a photographer, while yelling that the photographer as well as protesters were the reason law enforcement officers get killed on the job. After a 911 call, DC police officers arrived and spoke to the man. Federal agents did not.<\/p>\n

At a McDonalds at 14th<\/sup> and U Street, an area full of bars and clubs, David, a lifelong DC resident in his 50s, said the federal agents patrolling that area, \u201care in the wrong place. They should be in dangerous neighborhoods.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Saturday, independent journalist Marisa Kabas posted a video<\/a> that shows a half dozen masked federal agents tasing and punching a unarmed man while subduing him. The video does not show what prompted the confrontation. Asked by onlookers for identification and what agency they work for, one agent responds: \u201cDo I have to answer to you?\u201d And: \u201cI don\u2019t care my guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Mount Pleasant Saturday, the anti-ICE sign that agents tore down had been replaced<\/a> by a new one, and the park is full of chalk art denouncing the occupation.<\/p>\n

Isaias Guerrero, co-director of local group Poder del Pueblo, which organized<\/a> a protest concert in the park on Thursday night, said the group planned to hold additional events using music to oppose what he called \u201cthe actions of a dictator.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re saying, \u2018We\u2019re not gonna take that,\u201d Guerrero said. \u201cThis is a show of fighting for democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n