Letter: Political Theater, not Public Safety

To the Editor:

Deploying the National Guard in U.S. cities is a terrifying and unnecessary overreach. Donald Trump is lying about crime to normalize turning U.S. troops on our own citizens. He paints cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. as war zones, even as violent crime in many of them is trending downward.

This isn’t about public safety, it's political theater. Trump openly muses about being a dictator, overrides local authority, and flaunts the military as a weapon against Democratic-led cities. In Washington, D.C., troops and federal agents have even been assigned to patrol tourist zones and rake leaves, while nearly 80% of residents oppose their presence.

If Trump truly cared about safety, he’d look at Republican-led places like Tulsa, Jacksonville, Oklahoma City, or states like Louisiana. Mississippi, and Tennessee, which consistently rank among the nation’s worst for violent crime. High crime isn’t caused by too little policing, it's the result of decades of disinvestment, poverty, and systemic barriers.

The solution isn’t M4 rifles in our streets; it’s investing in schools, housing, mental health, and community intervention. Authoritarian symbolism won’t solve what social investment can. We cannot allow the normalization of military occupation in our cities. Real public safety begins with community restoration, not dictatorship by decree.

Peace,

Michelle Petz, LCSW

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