In DC, a heated standoff between police, neighbors shows unease amid
Trump's law enforcement surge
[August 28, 2025]
By COLLIN BINKLEY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The street, normally quiet, was abuzz. The block lit
up with flashing police cruisers and officers in tactical vests. Some
had covered their faces. Neighbors came out of homes. Some hurled
insults at the police, telling them to leave — or worse. Dozens joined
in a chant: “Shame on you.”
Aaron Goldstein approached two officers. “Can you tell me why you
couldn’t do this at 10:30 or 9:30, and why you had to terrorize the
children in our neighborhood?” the man asked the officers as they turned
their gazes away from him. Both wore dark sunglasses against the morning
sun.
They said nothing.
The arrest shattered the routine of the neighborhood around Bancroft
Elementary School, a public school where more than 60% of students are
Latino. It came on the third day of a new school year, and immigration
fears had already left the neighborhood on edge. Groups of residents had
started escorting students to school from two nearby apartment
complexes.
It was just another morning in Washington, D.C., in Summer 2025 — the
summer of President Donald Trump's federal law-enforcement intervention
in the nation's capital.
A confrontation that was one among many
Some episodes with law enforcement in the District unfold calmly. During
others, nothing happens at all. But the boil-over Wednesday morning was
one among many that have erupted across the city since Trump’s police
takeover, offering a glimpse into daily life in a city where emotions
have been pulled taut. Sightings of police activity spread quickly,
attracting residents who say the federal infusion is unwelcome.
Families and children had been making their way toward a bilingual
elementary school in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood when federal and
local police officers descended on an apartment building blocks from the
school. Neighbors had been on high alert amid fears of increased
immigration enforcement.
Now officers were flooding the street, some in plainclothes and face
coverings. Some carried rifles or riot shields. Neighbors gathered
outside and began yelling at the police to leave. Blocks away, as word
spread, an assistant principal waiting to greet students sprinted to the
scene.
In an interview, Goldstein, the Mount Pleasant resident, said it felt
like a violation of the neighborhood, which he described as a “peaceful
mix of white professionals and migrant neighbors, with a lot of love in
it.” Moments after he arrived at the scene, Goldstein said he saw a
woman with two schoolgirls squeeze through a cluster of armed officers
at an entrance to the apartment building.
“People are on Signal chats and they’re absolutely terrified, and
everyone is following this,” said Goldstein, 55, who had just dropped
off his third-grade daughter at Bancroft. “It’s distressful. We feel
invaded, and it’s really terrible.”
The standoff continued after police arrested a man who they said is
accused of drug and firearm crimes. Dozens of residents trailed officers
down a side street and continued the jeers. “Quit your jobs.” “Nobody
wants you here.” “You’re ruining the country.”
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Officers from the Washington Metro Police and the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) are seen in the Mount
Pleasant neighborhood in Washington as arrests are made at a nearby
apartment building, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Collin
Binkley)
Asked about the episode later at a news conference, D.C. Police
Chief Pamela Smith said the law enforcement action attracted a
“significant number of protesters” but “we were able to maintain
calm.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser added, “I know there’s a lot of anxiety in
the District.”
One officer, in the middle of it all, tries to talk
The conflict was punctuated by a remarkably candid conversation led
by a Metropolitan Police Department sergeant who took questions from
neighbors in what he described as “not an official press
conference.”
“This is just me talking to community members,” Sgt. Michael
Millsaps said, leaning back against the rear bumper of a cruiser.
Millsaps said the city’s police department was carrying out a
planned arrest of a “suspected drug dealer” with support from the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The suspect was
taken into custody and a search of his apartment uncovered narcotics
and an illegal firearm, Millsaps said.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers joined only as a
distraction to prevent protesters from disrupting the operation, he
said.
“The immigration folks were parked over there to get y’all to leave
us alone,” he said. ICE officials did not immediately comment.
Residents told Millsaps that their trust in the city's police had
been broken. They said they felt less safe amid Trump's crackdown.
Millsaps said he was sorry to hear it. “I hear your frustrations. My
job is to take it.”
Still, he described a different response from residents east of the
Anacostia River, in some of the city's highest crime areas. “I go on
the other side of the river now, it’s the opposite. People come
outside and thank us,” he said.
Mount Pleasant resident Nancy Petrovic was among those yelling at
city and ATF officers after the arrest on Wednesday morning.
Petrovic, a lifelong resident of the area, rushed out of her home
when she heard yelling shortly after 8 a.m. She counted at least 10
police cars lined up across the block.
“Kids are going to school — they’re walking to school — and it’s
frightening to them and their parents,” said Petrovic, who said the
street is usually quiet and has no need for more police. “We want
them to go away."
Asked about the timing of the arrest, Millsaps said it was a planned
operation similar to countless others.
“I’ve been doing this for 14 years, serving these warrants at the
same time of day,” he said. “The only difference is you’ve got a big
crowd here, which added even more police presence. But this was just
a normal police operation.”
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Associated Press journalist Mike Pesoli contributed to this report.
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