Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott is speaking out to defend “a 50-year low” in homicides.<\/span>Julia Nikhinson\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n President Trump <\/span>is planning to ramp up his federal reach into local enforcement after first flooding the streets of DC with National Guard troops, and this week he promised to send troops to more cities\u2014including Baltimore<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite a federal judge ruling that Trump broke the law<\/a> when deploying the National Guard in Los Angeles earlier this summer, Trump insisted during a press conference on Tuesday<\/a> that his administration had \u201ca right to do it because I have an obligation to do it to protect this country\u2026 and that includes Baltimore.\u201d <\/p>\n Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has been speaking out in defense of his city, including in a sit-down interview this week with me. Scott pushed back against Trump\u2019s claims, saying that this year, his city has witnessed \u201cthe fewest amount of homicides through this date on record. That\u2019s a 50-year low, and that\u2019s still not good enough for me.\u201d The Washington Post<\/em> recently reported<\/a> that homicide rates in Baltimore have plummeted nearly 23 percent compared with the first half of 2024, while non-fatal shootings fell by nearly 20 percent.<\/p>\n Scott also decried federal cuts to the very programs he says have been instrumental in reducing crime in Baltimore.<\/p>\n \u201cCommunity violence intervention, victim services, all of those kinds of services that have been cut,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we want from the president is very simple\u2014reinstating all the cuts that they\u2019ve made to federal grants to programs that have been working to reduce violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch the full video here:<\/p>\n
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