By Darius Spearman (africanelements)

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Washington D.C. recently witnessed a powerful "Stop Police Killings" rally and vigil at Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) headquarters on November 21, 2025. Groups like Free DC, Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, and Black Lives Matter DC organized this urgent demonstration (freedcproject.org). Organizers highlighted a tragic string of "three recent deaths in four days" linked to DC police or federal task-force partners operating under President Trump’s "DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force" as the immediate catalyst for the protest. Though specific details about the victims or circumstances of these three deaths are not widely documented, their occurrence served as a stark reminder of ongoing police violence and spurred the community to action. The rally emphasized a persistent demand to dismantle militarized policing in Black neighborhoods and to reduce the MPD's extensive coordination with federal agencies. This call is deeply rooted in the city's complex history of racial injustice and federal oversight.

The struggle against police brutality and for self-determination in Washington D.C.'s Black communities is a deeply ingrained part of the city's history. It predates modern civil rights movements by many decades (freedcproject.org). Records show a dramatic rise in police brutality against Black men and women in D.C. during the 1920s and 1930s. Between 1928 and 1938, white police officers fatally shot fifty citizens in the city, forty of whom were African American men (freedcproject.org). Furthermore, Black women faced street harassment, racial epithets, physical assaults, and intrusions into their homes by police (freedcproject.org).

However, Black Washingtonians did not endure this oppression silently. Early civil rights efforts in the 1930s and 1940s saw groups like the local National Negro Congress politicizing interracial police brutality to demand accountability (freedcproject.org). This campaign successfully led to a significant decline in police shootings and the establishment of a police review board (freedcproject.org). While the board achieved initial reductions in incidents, its long-term effectiveness was limited, as such early boards often lacked independent investigative powers, subpoena authority, or the ability to mandate disciplinary action (cwsl.edu). This meant they frequently declined or became ineffective over time due to political interference or police resistance, highlighting the ongoing challenge for true civilian oversight (cwsl.edu).

The "Free DC" movement emerged in the mid-1960s, co-founded by figures like Marion Barry, advocating for dignity, self-determination, and political enfranchisement for D.C. residents (freedcproject.org). This movement mobilized students and organized acts of civil disobedience to protest the lack of representation for D.C. residents (freedcproject.org). This denial of representation has roots in racism, beginning when Congress dismantled the city's elected local government in 1874 as its majority-Black population gained influence (freedcproject.org). Although the D.C. Home Rule Act was signed into law in 1973, allowing residents to elect a mayor and city council, both Congress and subsequent presidents retained substantial control over local law enforcement (freedcproject.org).

This federal influence is often shaped by racialized narratives about crime, which disproportionately link crime to specific racial or ethnic groups, frequently Black and brown communities (racism.org). These narratives often exaggerate crime prevalence, ignore systemic causes, and fuel public fear, justifying punitive policing and federal interventions (racism.org). A unique aspect of D.C.'s lack of full autonomy concerns its National Guard. The D.C. National Guard is "always federalized," meaning it falls directly under the command of the President of the United States, not the D.C. Mayor or a state governor (washingtonareaspark.com). This has significant practical implications for D.C. residents, as the city has no direct control over its own National Guard during emergencies or civil disturbances, leaving deployment decisions entirely to federal discretion (washingtonareaspark.com).

Historically, federal intervention in D.C. policing has been significant. The 1968 Washington, D.C., riots, following Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, saw 11,850 federal troops and 1,750 D.C. Army National Guardsmen deployed to assist the overwhelmed MPD (freedcproject.org). This marked the largest military occupation of an American city since the Civil War (freedcproject.org). In the 1980s and early 1990s, federal task forces, including the U.S. Park Police, ATF, and U.S. Marshals, were deployed to combat the city's drug epidemic through aggressive enforcement and interagency cooperation (freedcproject.org).

Militarized policing refers to the adoption of military-grade equipment, tactics, and training by civilian law enforcement agencies, often blurring the lines between police and military roles (freedcproject.org). This can include armored vehicles, high-powered weaponry, SWAT teams for routine policing, and training focused on combat rather than community engagement (freedcproject.org). The roots of militarized policing, broadly, are intertwined with the history of slavery and intensified in response to civil rights protests in the 1960s (freedcproject.org). This established a long-standing pattern of deploying heavily armed forces against Black communities (freedcproject.org).

Contemporary movements for Black liberation and police accountability in D.C. build upon this historical foundation, responding to ongoing issues of police violence and federal overreach (freedcproject.org). Black Lives Matter (BLM) as a decentralized social movement emerged nationally in 2013, focusing on combating racism and police brutality against Black people (freedcproject.org). Black Lives Matter D.C. formed in 2015, organizing against systems of white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy, and colonialism (freedcproject.org). BLM D.C. identifies white supremacy as the foundational ideology that upholds racial hierarchy, while capitalism perpetuates disparities and uses policing to control marginalized populations (escholarship.org). Furthermore, patriarchy contributes to gendered violence and hyper-masculine police culture, and colonialism maintains subjugation through oppressive state apparatuses like policing (escholarship.org).

Harriet's Wildest Dreams, founded by former Black Lives Matter DC organizers Nee Nee Taylor, Makia Green, and Qiana Johnson, is a Black-led abolitionist community defense hub in the D.C. area (freedcproject.org). Launched in 2021, the organization focuses on legal empowerment, political and civic education, mass protest, and building alternatives to oppressive systems, particularly centering Black lives most at risk of state-sanctioned violence (freedcproject.org). In this modern context, "abolitionist" refers to a movement advocating for the complete dismantling of existing carceral systems, including policing and prisons (standupfordemocracy.net). It aims to replace them with community-based systems of safety, accountability, and justice that do not rely on punishment and state violence (standupfordemocracy.net). "State-sanctioned violence," in addition to police brutality, encompasses harm perpetrated by governmental bodies, such as racist immigration policies, systemic neglect in public health, and discriminatory legal structures that deny fundamental rights (youtube.com).

The modern "Free DC" campaign, initiated in January 2025 by experienced local organizers, takes its name from the 1960s movement (freedcproject.org). It aims to protect D.C.'s Home Rule and ensure residents control their own government, directly challenging President Trump's perceived takeover of local law enforcement (freedcproject.org). The "perceived takeover" refers to instances where the federal government asserted significant control over D.C.'s local law enforcement and public spaces, often overriding local authority (rsis.edu.sg). This stemmed from D.C.'s unique constitutional status, which grants Congress ultimate authority over the city (rsis.edu.sg).

In March 2025, President Trump signed an executive order establishing the "D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force" (freedcproject.org). This task force notably excludes D.C. officials and aims to "surge law enforcement officers in public areas" and enforce "quality-of-life laws" (freedcproject.org). Quality-of-life laws are typically minor offenses intended to regulate public behavior, such as loitering, public intoxication, open container violations, and public urination (wikipedia.org). They are often criticized for disproportionate enforcement against homeless individuals and people of color (wikipedia.org). The task force also aims to maximize immigration enforcement and "beautify" the city (freedcproject.org). This federal initiative has led to a significant increase in federal law enforcement presence, with agencies like the U.S. Park Police, DEA, ATF, and National Guard personnel being deployed (freedcproject.org). In some cases, these personnel are deputized as special U.S. Marshals to grant them temporary local law enforcement authority (freedcproject.org). When federal agents are deputized as special U.S. Marshals, it grants them specific powers and jurisdiction typically reserved for U.S. Marshals, allowing them to operate with federal authority in local contexts (police1.com). This can expand their arrest powers and grant them jurisdiction over federal offenses, sometimes insulating them from local accountability mechanisms, while their training remains primarily federal (police1.com). As of October 2025, the task force claimed over 5,000 arrests and the seizure of more than 500 guns (freedcproject.org).

Statistical data consistently reveals profound racial disparities in policing in Washington D.C., both historically and in recent years, underscoring the systemic nature of the issues raised by activists (freedcproject.org). From 2022 to 2023, Black individuals, who constitute 44% of D.C.'s population, accounted for 70% of all police stops (freedcproject.org). Earlier data from 2019 showed similar disparities, with Black individuals making up 70% of all police stops and 86% of "non-ticket stops" (those involving an arrest or search), despite being less than half the population (freedcproject.org).

This chart illustrates the significant disparity between the percentage of Black individuals in D.C.'s population and their representation in police stops from 2022-2023 (freedcproject.org).

An analysis of 2022-2023 stop-and-frisk data by the ACLU and ACLU of the District of Columbia found that Black people composed 70% of those stopped, despite making up 44% of the D.C. population (freedcproject.org). Between 2013 and 2017, Black individuals, while making up 47% of D.C.'s population, accounted for a staggering 86% of all arrestees (freedcproject.org). They were arrested at 10 times the rate of white people (freedcproject.org). These disparities were consistent across geographic areas and offense types (freedcproject.org). Furthermore, a concerning trend revealed that stop-and-frisk practices are largely ineffective at recovering guns, with only 0.9% of stops in 2022 and 1.2% in 2023 resulting in a gun seizure (freedcproject.org).

This visualization highlights the severe racial disparity in arrests in D.C., with Black individuals comprising a vastly disproportionate percentage of arrestees compared to their population share from 2013-2017 (freedcproject.org).

In 2023, a D.C. government study found that Black people were involved in 94% of all police use-of-force incidents, an increase from 90% in 2022 (freedcproject.org). This is despite Black people making up only 44.4% of the city's population (freedcproject.org). Nationally, Black Americans are killed by police at more than twice the rate of White Americans (freedcproject.org). Additionally, in D.C. homicides and nonfatal shootings between January 2019 and December 2020, approximately 96% of both victims and suspects were Black, even though Black residents comprise only 46% of the overall population in the District (freedcproject.org). Activists connect these high rates of Black victims and suspects in D.C. homicides and shootings to demands for an end to militarized policing and federal overreach by arguing that systemic issues, exacerbated by oppressive policing, contribute to both intra-community violence and police violence (wikipedia.org). Militarized policing and federal intervention are seen as failing to address root causes like poverty and lack of opportunity, instead escalating tensions and contributing to the criminalization of Black communities (wikipedia.org). Therefore, dismantling militarized policing and federal control is considered a necessary step toward fostering community-led safety solutions that address these underlying factors (wikipedia.org).

This chart illustrates the stark racial disparity in D.C. police use-of-force incidents in 2023, where Black individuals were involved at a vastly disproportionate rate compared to their population percentage (freedcproject.org).

The "Stop Police Killings" rally and vigil in Washington D.C. is not an isolated event but a contemporary manifestation of a long-standing struggle against racialized policing and federal control. From historical instances of police brutality and early movements for self-determination to the ongoing disparities highlighted by recent data, the demands for an end to militarized policing and greater local autonomy resonate through generations of activism in the nation's capital (freedcproject.org). Dismantling militarized policing would involve concrete steps such as reallocating police budgets to community services, restricting the use of military equipment, ending specific aggressive tactics, and implementing stricter oversight and accountability measures (freedcproject.org). This approach aligns with the abolitionist vision of creating genuine community safety, rather than relying on punitive carceral systems. The continuous fight emphasizes the deeply entrenched nature of these issues and the enduring resilience of Black communities in D.C. seeking justice and self-determination.

Darius Spearman is a professor of Black Studies at San Diego City College, where he has been teaching for over 20 years. He is the founder of African Elements, a media platform dedicated to providing educational resources on the history and culture of the African diaspora. Through his work, Spearman aims to empower and educate by bringing historical context to contemporary issues affecting the Black community.