Woa?
US Attorney General Bondi has NOW declared that the head of the DEA IS the ‘Emergency Wash DC Metro Police Chief’?
That the DC Chief Pamela Smith has to clear any directives with the DEA guy?
Huh?
What Emergency?
(Congress IS the overseer of the DC Police , NOT the President)
This IS a ‘hostile takeover’ of Home Rule….
Does this mean that the DC cops have to clear who work’s what shift?
Does this mean the DEA guy signs off on thew payroll?
Does this mean if a DC cop gets hurt?
The DEA guy responds?
Folks this IS getting stupid….
REAL FAST…..
The move IS being countered the DC Attorney General and the DC Mayor and memebers of Congress….
And?
The DC Mayor HAS OREDERED her Police Chief to DISREAGARD the Bondi directive, but to work with the Feds on their actions….
Attorney General Pam Bondi further cemented the Trump administration‘s takeover of D.C. law enforcement Thursday by shifting decision-making authority from its police chief and handing it to the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, drawing pushback from the city’s mayor.
Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote in a post to X late Thursday that “there is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal official.”
In an interview on Fox News, Bondi had previewed an order by the Justice Department naming DEA head Terry Cole as “emergency police commissioner” of the Metropolitan Police Department, days after President Donald Trump directed the federal government to take control of the local police and deployed the National Guard in an effort to mitigate crime in the nation’s capital.
“Effective immediately, Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terrence C. Cole shall serve as MPD’s Emergency Police Commissioner for the duration of the emergency declared by the President. Commissioner Cole shall assume all of the powers and duties vested in the District of Columbia Chief of Police,” the order from the attorney general’s office read.
The order means the existing leadership of the D.C. police, including Chief Pamela Smith, will have to receive approval from Cole before issuing any further directives for the department.
Following a meeting with Bondi on Tuesday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Smith was serving as “operations lead in working with the federal government and federal forces that will be in the district.”
…
But late Thursday, Bowser and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb disputed that Bondi could name Cole as “emergency police commissioner.”…
…
The Wash DC response…
D.C. officials have interpreted the Home Rule Act to mean that they are providing law enforcement services to the president while retaining ownership of the department — not surrendering total control. The provision is titled “Emergency control of police,” and the White House made clear Tuesday they saw the president as the one in control. In his executive order he delegated his authority to Bondi.
But in his letter to Smith, Schwalb argued that the plain language of the Home Rule Act in no way allowed Bondi’s orders and that the act did not say anything about allowing a federal official to rescind or change D.C. police policies or to remove the chief of police. “Members of MPD must continue to follow your orders and not the orders of any official not appointed by the Mayor,” Schwalb wrote.
D.C.’s law limiting cooperation with ICE — known as the Sanctuary Values Amendment Act of 2020 — has recently drawn attention from Congress. Earlier this year, the Republican-controlled House voted to nullify D.C.’s sanctuary-city law and mandate full cooperation with the federal authorities, part of a steady drumbeat of bills GOP lawmakers have taken up that intervene in D.C. policy.
The bill’s chances are unclear in the Senate, where the filibuster would require support from Democrats. But if Bondi’s order were carried out, it would achieve the same end….
I told ya so..,,
Post coming on Update