Today’s notice: Rhetoric vs. reality in D.C. We still do not have Epstein grand jury transcripts. We will soon have new Texas congressional maps. Asking voters to allow for (even) older judges. And: The future of FEMA and Louisiana’s memories of it.
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What does victory look like for Trump in D.C.? “Lower crime and making D.C. safe again,” a White House official told Jasmine on Wednesday — an amorphous goal lacking metrics. They called the ongoing effort “a work in progress.” But big questions remain about exactly what is being accomplished, and what can be.
Arrest numbers are being regularly touted by White House aides. But what do they mean? “The devil is in the details,” Martin Austermuhle, a longtime local D.C. reporter and contributor at nonprofit outlet The 51st, told us yesterday. He broke it down:
- By Wednesday, “administration officials said there had been 550 arrests and 76 illegal guns seized since the federal surge began on Aug. 11,” he said. Is that a big number? Well, “between June 30 and July 6, before this federal surge, MPD officers alone seized 70 guns,” Austermuhle told us.
There’s more that only a veteran local reporter would notice. The U.S. Marshals Service announced Tuesday there would be a $500 reward for tips that lead to an arrest during the D.C. surge. “When MPD offers such monetary rewards, it’s almost always for information that leads to an arrest and conviction,” Austermuhle said. “Arresting someone can be relatively easy; convicting them is tougher.”