Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, on Monday called President Trump’s announced takeover of the city’s police force “unsettling and unprecedented” but appeared resigned to cooperate with it, stressing at a news conference that there was little she could do to block the move.
She repeatedly characterized Mr. Trump’s federalization of the city’s police force, under an emergency declaration to combat a crime “crisis” despite falling violent crime rates, as a workable extension of the oftentimes collaborative relationship between federal and local law enforcement entities tasked to the nation’s capital.
Ms. Bowser’s tone was strikingly diplomatic, an approach in keeping with the more muted posture she has adopted toward Mr. Trump during his second term, as compared to more fiery statements during his first term opposing similar threats to the city’s limited autonomy.
The “plain language” of the city’s home rule charter, she explained, authorized the president to declare a public safety emergency and
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