A Call for National Guard
To Protect DC Residents
Trayon White, Sr. / Councilmember, Ward 8

WASHINGTON, DC (August 11, 2023) — Dear Ward 8 Residents,
We are living in a warzone.

I held a press conference this week because I am frustrated at the number of grieving mothers I have to console, devastated by the loss of a child due to gun violence. I called to do something extreme this week because we are in harsh times.

I announced an idea to call on the National Guard to provide a presence in the District to support the Metropolitan Police Department and serve as a deterrent for violent individuals.

The reality is we need more officers. Our officers are outnumbered and outmatched by the heavy artillery the individuals committing the crimes carry. I have witnessed several crime scenes where militarized weaponry has been used — leaving hundreds of rounds in its aftermath.

Already this year, more than 160 lives have been lost in DC. We are burying our children at an alarming rate. The time for us to unite and take action to increase the safety in our community is right now.
Respectfully,
Trayon White, Sr.
Councilmember, Ward 8

“We Do Not Live in a Warzone”
Thomas Ruffin, Jr. / Attorney for the Disenfranchised in Ward 8

WASHINGTON, DC (August 12, 2023) — Dear Councilmember Trayon White & the Ward 8 community:

This idea of deploying the National Guard in DC is one of the dumbest ideas ever from Councilmember Trayon White, and, in fact, it sounds like one of the dumbest ideas put forward in this city in a long time.  In Ward 8, we do not live in a war zone.  We live in neighborhoods where children play and matriculate at failing public schools and failing public charter schools; where adults suffer from functional illiteracy, mental illness, and addiction to legal and illegal narcotics; where poverty abounds; and where our elected officials work hard solely to promote their self-interest, not the best interests of our community.

In Ward 8, we don’t need a military incursion by the National Guard.  Nor do we need more police.  Instead, we need for the Council of the District of Columbia and Mayor Muriel Bowser to cut off their enormous financial subsidies and tax breaks for wealthy developers and financiers, and we need for the Council of the District of Columbia and Mayor Bowser to outlaw such theft-based programs as photo radar cameras in the District of Columbia.

In terms of crime, we need for Mayor Bowser and the U.S. Attorney to prosecute fully and vigorously local police officers for their crimes, especially when they commit racially bigoted murders and false prosecutions against black men and black women.  We need for the council and the mayor to pave in a highly competent way Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, Good Hope Road, Alabama Avenue, Southern Avenue, Mississippi Avenue, Minnesota Avenue, and the other horribly paved streets, roadways, and alleys in Ward 8.

We need for the Council of the District of Columbia and Mayor Bowser to fully fund the United Medical Center so that I provides up to 350 in-patient beds, excellent in-patient and out-patient medical care, and excellent emergency room services.

In terms of crime and public nuisances, we in Ward 8 need for Mayor Bowser, the Council of the District of Columbia, and Councilmember Trayon White to close down the excessive number of liquor stores, fast food restaurants, beer and wine grocery stores, and tobacco shops in Ward 8.  These enterprises, while supposedly “lawful”, encourage backwardness and troubling public nuisances in our neighborhoods.  In fact, we need Councilmember Trayon White to clean up the gatherings of alcoholics, drug addicts, prostitutes, and mentally ill homeless people who loiter about at South Capitol and Atlantic Streets around the corner from Councilmember White’s home.

We need for Councilmember White to be a competent legislator who provides excellent community service, and not be a stooge for Mayor Bowser by, for example, running a sham campaign for mayor so as to draw votes from Robert White’s campaign for mayor.

In other words, we need Councilmember Trayon White to run for mayor if he truly plans to be a better mayor than Muriel Bowser, not so as to draw votes from Robert White in exchange for political favors from Bowser after her reelection.

Similarly, we don’t need publicity stunts like calls for deploying the National Guard in D.C., so as to build up support for Mayor Bowser’s ill-advised call for more police in D.C.  Bowser and her ilk typically put more and more money in D.C. police, but we get nothing in return except more crime.  Hence, the investment in more police seems to be a perfect waste of money.

We can do better.  In fact, Councilmember Trayon White can do better than putting out stupid publicity soundbites like calls for deploying the National Guard.  If Councilmember Trayon White knows so little about municipal government administration and legislative affairs as to call for deploying the National Guard in peacetime, then we need for him to resign from office.  To be perfectly clear, Ward 8 cannot tolerate another term of incompetent representation for the ward on the Council for the District of Columbia.

Sincerely, Thomas Ruffin, Jr.
Attorney for the Disenfranchised in Ward 8