"If soldiers are going to be deployed to your city, what would you prefer they do: point a rifle in your face or mow your grass? This is not a question I ever expected to have to consider in my days on this planet, but life is full of surprises. As part of Donald Trump's military deployment to address Washington DC's so-called crime emergency, national guard troops are being tasked with various groundskeeping duties around the United States capital."
"It's usually the responsibility of the National Parks Service to beautify spaces in DC, but amid recent cuts by the Trump administration, the number of parks employees in the city fell from 200 to a mere 20, according to the Washington Post. Still, the guard wasn't deployed to toss cigarette butts. This is happening because of alleged rampant crime in a city where the violent crime rate before Trump's deployment was down by about 20% over the same period in earlier years."
National Guard troops deployed to Washington DC are being tasked with groundskeeping duties such as spreading mulch, picking up trash and general maintenance of public spaces. The guard has been used for sanitation and groundskeeping in past emergencies, but there is no natural disaster or pandemic-related lockdown currently. Local National Parks Service staffing dropped from roughly 200 to about 20 employees after budget cuts. The deployment is framed as a response to crime despite prior declines in violent crime and carries an estimated cost near $1 million per day.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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