A glorified photo op: About a dozen National Guard members took a stroll around Washington D.C.'s National Mall yesterday as the sun set. Other troops deployed around monuments elsewhere, and some could be found at a U.S. Park Police facility in Anacostia.
"We just did a presence patrol to be amongst the people, to be seen," Master Sgt. Cory Boroff told The New York Times.
But it wasn't just showmanship. Federal agents—including those with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI—working in conjunction with Metropolitan Police Department officers (who have been temporarily placed under federal control) made 23 arrests on Monday night. That total, per Director Kash Patel, included "one arrest on a search warrant for a prior murder charge" and "multiple outstanding warrants for DUI." It's not totally clear how many arrests were made yesterday or if these figures are in addition to standard arrests made by D.C. cops, which have been averaging 68 arrests per day. (Also, arrests are different than convictions; these folks must still wend their way through the court system.)
