This week, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) filed an amicus brief in District of Columbia v. Trump, urging the court to grant the request for a preliminary injunction to enjoin the administration’s deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C.
The brief explains the harms of militarized policing for Black people in the United States, from early American history to the creation of SWAT teams and the “War on Drugs” to the present day. It further challenges the administration’s purported justification for the National Guard deployment, which involved incendiary language that has often been used to invoke false associations of Blackness with criminality and dangerousness akin to the now-debunked “super-predator” myth.
The brief also outlines research demonstrating the paucity of evidence that militarized policing reduces violence or improves public safety. Finally, the brief explains that, unsurprisingly, the presence of military troops in the District has created an atmosphere of military occupation, which makes Black residents feel less safe.
“History is clear. Militarized policing does not improve community safety and, in fact, can significantly harm Black people and other people of color, who already experience rampant police abuse. The deployment of National Guard troops is no different, and no amount of fabricated crime emergencies will change that,” said Alaizah Koorji, Senior Counsel at LDF. “Allowing a military occupation to continue in our nation’s capital is counterproductive to public safety and contrary to the rule of law. We urge the court to grant the preliminary injunction and protect D.C. residents from further harm.”
“The rhetoric used to justify the deployment of National Guard troops in D.C. invokes false, pernicious stereotypes about criminality that pose a unique risk to Black people, who are particularly vulnerable to discrimination by law enforcement. Instead of contributing to the wellbeing of D.C. residents, the Trump administration has created an atmosphere of fear,” said Puneet Cheema, LDF Project Director of the Justice in Public Safety Project. “The continued military presence of National Guard troops in D.C. is an affront to any semblance of a multiracial democracy. We are hopeful that the court will end this military occupation by granting the preliminary injunction.”
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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.
