Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

In early June, President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard in Los Angeles in an effort to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during protests. Whether you agree with Trump’s deployment of the guard or not, it was clear he made the decision in direct response to immigration policy protests.

“The Trump Administration has a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior and violence, especially when that violence is aimed at law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

The way Trump handled the LA protests was not only immoral but ignorant of typical legal processes – it was the first time since 1965 a president bypassed a governor in order to deploy federal troops within a state. While this desperate measure was a direct response to an ongoing situation, I don’t believe we can justify Trump’s actions.

Trump’s deployment of the guard within Washington, D.C., as well as his oath to do so in Memphis, shows a leader experimenting with his power in a harmful and ineffective way.

It’s crucial to look at current trends amid these plans to send the guard to Memphis. Memphis is a historically crime-ridden city, but crime rates are currently on the decline. Its levels are at a historic low, one it hasn’t seen in 25 years.

The National Guard’s presence in Memphis is not only unnecessary, but also unwarranted by local officials.

“I want to be clear, I did not ask for the National Guard and I don’t think it is the way to drive down crime,” Memphis mayor Paul Young said on Trump’s decision.

Despite his initial protests, Young has said that he hopes the National Guard will benefit Memphis through community beautification projects. We’ll have to wait and see if this will truly be the case, but based on the situation in Washington, D.C., it’s not absurd to assume beautification will become the guard’s only purpose. The fact that local officials view the presence of the military in their city as an opportunity to beautify Memphis points out the obvious: Trump’s actions are unnecessary.

When Trump deployed the guard within Washington, he did so without a valid cause. Now, he’s repeating the same mistakes under the same unchecked and inaccurate philosophy, this time within Memphis. Condemning him clearly isn’t enough to make him recognize the facts of our nation’s flaws and respond appropriately or proportionately.

“It’s becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness,” Trump claimed at an Aug. 11 press conference where he announced his plan to deploy the guard in Washington, D.C..

Trump went as far as to make it seem like his executive power would save Washington, dubbing his actions part of a “Liberation Day.” This word choice makes it sound like Trump believes his actions are freeing Washington from imprisonment, which is an absurd claim to make.

Trump used outdated statistics to argue Washington, D.C. as lawless. He compared Washington’s homicide rate in 2012 to its homicide rate in 2024, pointing out that the rate nearly doubled. This is an outdated statistic and fails to consider more recent trends. From 2023 to 2024, the homicide rate within Washington saw nearly a 31% decrease.

It’s also worth noting that Trump was in office for the last four years of that span. This calls into question the productivity of his first term, as he appears to have failed to address the issue at that time.

Trump’s efforts in Washington have ultimately proved to do more harm than good. Although crime rates have dropped over the past few weeks in the capital, the measures taken to accomplish this feel dystopian. Members of the National Guard roaming the streets of our capital feels like we’re a country at war with itself.

“Sending masked agents in unmarked cars to pick people up off the streets; flooding our neighborhoods with armed national guardsmen untrained in local policing; attempting a federal takeover of our police force — none of these are durable, lasting solutions for driving down crime,”Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said of the National Guard’s presence in Washington.

Trump’s use of the National Guard shows no signs of slowing down. His reckless deployment of military forces is enough to make you question whether he is doing this to keep our cities safe, or for his own political gain.

If it is truly to protect the peace, having military forces roaming the streets may contribute to lower crime rates in the short term, but it pushes the boundaries of executive power and is not sustainable for the independence of our cities.

Will Chadwick is a sophomore magazine, news and digital journalism major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at wchadwic@syr.edu.

Published on September 21, 2025 at 8:55 pm