Black mayors of cities Trump decries as 'lawless' tout significant
declines in violent crimes
[August 18, 2025]
By TERRY TANG
As President Donald Trump declared Washington, D.C., a crime-ridden
wasteland in need of federal intervention and threatened similar federal
interventions in other Black-led cities, several mayors compared notes.
The president's characterization of their cities contradicts what they
began noticing last year: that they were seeing a drop in violent crime
after a pandemic-era spike. In some cases the declines were monumental,
due in large part to more youth engagement, gun buyback programs and
community partnerships.
Now members of the African American Mayors Association are determined to
stop Trump from burying accomplishments that they already felt were
overlooked. And they're using the administration's unprecedented law
enforcement takeover in the nation's capital as an opportunity to
disprove his narrative about some of the country's greatest urban
enclaves.
“It gives us an opportunity to say we need to amplify our voices to
confront the rhetoric that crime is just running rampant around major
U.S. cities. It’s just not true,” said Van Johnson, mayor of Savannah,
Georgia, and president of the African American Mayors Association. “It’s
not supported by any evidence or statistics whatsoever.”
After deploying the first of 800 National Guard members to Washington,
the Republican president is setting his sights on other cities including
Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and Oakland, California, calling them
crime-ridden and “horribly run." One thing they all have in common:
They're led by Black mayors.
“It was not lost on any member of our organization that the mayors
either were Black or perceived to be Democrats,” Johnson said. “And
that’s unfortunate. For mayors, we play with whoever’s on the field.”
The federal government's actions have heightened some of the mayors'
desires to champion the strategies used to help make their cities safer.
Some places are seeing dramatic drops in crime rates
Trump argued that federal law enforcement had to step in after a
prominent employee of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE,
was attacked in an attempted carjacking. He also pointed to homeless
encampments, graffiti and potholes as evidence of Washington “getting
worse.”
However statistics published by Washington’s Metropolitan Police
contradict the president and show violent crime has dropped there since
a post-pandemic peak in 2023.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson scoffed at Trump’s remarks, hailing the
city’s “historic progress driving down homicides by more than 30% and
shootings by almost 40% in the last year alone.”
Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, where homicides fell 14% between 2023
and 2024, called the federal takeover nothing but a performative “power
grab.”
In Baltimore, officials say they have seen historic decreases in
homicides and nonfatal shootings this year, and those have been on the
decline since 2022, according to the city's public safety data
dashboard. Carjackings were down 20% in 2023, and other major crimes
fell in 2024. Only burglaries have climbed slightly.
The lower crime rates are attributed to tackling violence with a “public
health” approach, city officials say. In 2021, under Mayor Brandon
Scott, Baltimore created a Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan that
called for more investment in community violence intervention, more
services for crime victims and other initiatives.
Scott accused Trump of exploiting crime as a “wedge issue and dog
whistle” rather than caring about curbing violence.
“He has actively undermined efforts that are making a difference saving
lives in cities across the country in favor of militarized policing of
Black communities,” Scott said via email.
The Democratic mayor pointed out that the Justice Department has slashed
over $1 million in funding this year that would have gone toward
community anti-violence measures. He vowed to keep on making headway,
regardless.
“We will continue to closely work with our regional federal law
enforcement agencies, who have been great partners, and will do
everything in our power to continue the progress despite the roadblocks
this administration attempts to implement,” Scott said.
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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass stands in front of a Border
Patrol federal agent at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, on Monday,
July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
Community organizations help curb violence
Just last week Oakland officials touted significant decreases in
crime in the first half of this year compared with the same period
in 2024, including a 21% drop in homicides and a 29% decrease in all
violent crime, according to the midyear report by the Major Cities
Chiefs Association. Officials credited collaborations with community
organizations and crisis response services through the city's
Department of Violence Prevention, established in 2017.
“These results show that we're on the right track,” Mayor Barbara
Lee said at a news conference. “We're going to keep building on this
progress with the same comprehensive approach that got us here.”
After Trump gave his assessment of Oakland last week, she rejected
it as “fearmongering.”
Social justice advocates agree that crime has gone down and say
Trump is perpetuating exaggerated perceptions that have long plagued
Oakland.
Nicole Lee, executive director of Urban Peace Movement, an
Oakland-based organization that focuses on empowering communities of
color and young people through initiatives such as leadership
training and assistance to victims of gun violence, said much credit
for the gains on lower crime rates is due to community groups.
“We really want to acknowledge all of the hard work that our network
of community partners and community organizations have been doing
over the past couple of years coming out of the pandemic to really
create real community safety,” Lee said. “The things we are doing
are working.”
She worries that an intervention by military forces would undermine
that progress.
“It creates kind of an environment of fear in our community,” Lee
said.
Patrols and youth curfews
In Washington, agents from multiple federal agencies, National Guard
members and even the United States Park Police have been seen
performing law enforcement duties from patrolling the National Mall
to questioning people parked illegally.
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said the guard troops will
not be armed but declined to elaborate on their assignments to
safety patrols and beautification efforts.
Savannah's Johnson said he is all for partnering with the federal
government, but troops on city streets is not what he envisioned.
Instead, cities need federal assistance for things like multistate
investigation and fighting problems such as gun trafficking, and
cybercrimes.
“I’m a former law enforcement officer. There is a different skill
set that is used for municipal law enforcement agencies than the
military,” Johnson said.
There has also been speculation that federal intervention could
entail curfews for young people.
But that would do more harm, Nicole Lee said, disproportionately
affecting young people of color and wrongfully assuming that youths
are the main instigators of violence.
“If you’re a young person, basically you can be cited, criminalized,
simply for being outside after certain hours,” Lee said. “Not only
does that not solve anything in regard to violence and crime, it
puts young people in the crosshairs of the criminal justice system.”
A game of wait-and-see
For now, Johnson said, the mayors are watching their counterpart in
Washington, Muriel Bowser, closely to see how she navigates the
unprecedented federal intervention. She has been walking a fine line
between critiquing and cooperating since Trump's takeover, but
things ramped up Friday when officials sued to try to block the
takeover.
Johnson praised Bowser for carrying on with dignity and grace.
“Black mayors are resilient. We are intrinsically children of
struggle,” Johnson said. “We learn to adapt quickly, and I believe
that we will and we are.”
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