Demonstrators on Saturday.<\/span>Allison Bailey\/NurPhoto\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Thousands of people<\/span> took to the streets of Washington, DC, on Saturday to voice opposition to Donald Trump\u2019s armed federal intervention in the city.<\/p>\n The demonstration<\/a>, organized by a coalition of local activist groups and unions, demands the \u201cimmediate withdrawal\u201d of federal troops from Washington and an end to Trump\u2019s federalization of the city\u2019s own police department.<\/p>\n Ever since Trump claimed a \u201ccrime emergency\u201d in Washington on August 8, he has flooded the city with federal assets. When it comes to the National Guard, according to my colleague Schuyler Mitchell<\/a>, experts \u201cestimate<\/a>\u00a0that the DC deployment is costing roughly $1 million a day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo far,\u201d she wrote on Tuesday, \u201ctheir work has not gone exactly as planned. Last week, soldiers deployed to fight a \u2018crime emergency<\/a>\u2018 instead found themselves completing \u2018beautification\u2019 duties on Capitol Hill and patrolling Krispy Kremes. Users on the r\/NationalGuard\u00a0subreddit<\/a>\u00a0were quick to give their colleagues a new nickname: National Guardeners.\u201d<\/p>\n One guard member complained to Mitchell that the administration \u201csee us as little toy soldiers to put on the street,\u201d and that domestic deployments were damaging recruiting efforts. \u201cWe are losing candidates left and right,\u201d the soldier said. \u201cCertainly, people are watching this and making decisions\u2014not only to not join, but plenty of people within our ranks who are pushing toward retirement are deciding they\u2019re done, and they are leaving before it gets too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
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