We are with D.C. as it continues to build toward freedom
We join in joyful defense of our faith, freedoms, families, and our futures
WASHINGTON D.C. — Pablo DeJesús, Executive Director of Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice, issued the following statement after the Monday, August 11th, Press Conference wherein President Trump announced Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, was being invoked.
“Yesterday, President Trump announced that he is invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. This action federalizes the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and places it under direct federal control, purportedly, to combat crime in the nation’s capital. However, this move does not truly address crime or violence in D.C.
It aimed to use state power to instill fear among citizens, scapegoat, and marginalize those who might dissent politically. Much the same way as in California, New Jersey, and other jurisdictions where people of faith and conscience have been audaciously defying what is being done to their communities and neighbors.
This is an authoritarian power move. We authored the Action of Immediate Witness, Faithful Defiance of Authoritarianism: Reaffirming Our Covenants for Democracy and Freedom, on this topic. It passed with more than 98% of the vote in June at our General Assembly.
If the declaration was about the complex issue of violence, it would have focused on innovative programs like violence interrupters, looked to community-based approaches, leveraged a public health model, and concentrated on de-escalation. If it was about crime, federal decision makers would not cut funding for public safety or refuse to release D.C. taxpayer funds needed for basic needs programs and efforts that redress the social determinants of poverty.
Instead, it was a maximal and hyperbolic flex of the bully pulpit designed to scare the residents of D.C., its youth populations, and its people without homes. Importantly, it was also a warning to urban jurisdictions that do not agree with the administration’s approach to governance and public policy.
When the President says he will let the police ‘do whatever the hell they want,’ it escalates the risk of violence.
UUSJ continues to Side With Love on this matter and fully supports local autonomy for D.C., Home Rule for D.C. We said so in Voter Justice and Racial Equity for the Citizens of the Nation’s Capital, the Action of Immediate Witness we helped draft and propose, in solidarity with the Reeb Voting Rights Project, All Souls Church, Unitarian, of Washington D.C.
We reiterate that the only permanent and lasting solution for D.C.’s lack of sovereignty is to grant the District the full rights, privileges, and protections available under the Constitution as a state. In the meantime, we continue to support authentic local liberty and freedom for D.C.
The President is proving our point with his announcement, and we see it for what it is, an authoritarian style effort to sow fear. It is an effort to divide We the People, and make us forget, in our terror, that our consent to be governed can be revoked at the ballot box. That we can withdraw that consent in other places also, from the big-box shop to the investment portfolio, from the gas pump to the super market, from the farm to the factory.
We will not forget.
We will remind everyone in joyful defense of our faith, freedoms, families, and our futures — we are with the people of D.C. as they continue to build toward freedom. Because their freedom is also our freedom.”
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