When Those Who Risk Their Lives Speak, Listen
There’s a gulf between people who put their lives on the line and people who put words on a page. That gulf has never been more apparent than in Washington, D.C.
The Metropolitan Police Department’s union, comprised of the men and women who actually patrol the streets, showed its support for President Donald Trump in its statement regarding federal intervention in the capital. Their words were plain: “Crime spirals out of control. Immediate action is necessary.”
At the same time, in a different universe, Salon magazine released a column lamenting about “occupation” and “tyranny.” One side deals in real consequences, while the other sells hysteria for clicks.
Police Union’s Hard Truth
Trump's takeover of D.C. wasn't a power trip. Not when over 3,000 officers in the D.C. Police Union voted to back him. That endorsement wasn't a play for political theater; it showed a survival instinct because, first-hand, they've seen the assaults, carjackings, and helped people bleeding on sidewalks while the Left demonstrates a young Kevin Bacon's version of, "All is Well!"
Related: D.C. Police Union Stands With Trump As Democrats Back Criminals
The union didn't pull punches when calling out local leadership; it said there was no leadership and that it needed help from the feds. With a message that blunt, there are no press releases from the mayor's office, and there's no PR agency in the world that can hide the fact that law enforcement demanded help.
Salon’s Script of Delusion
Salon, of course, saw things differently. In her recent column, “Trump’s D.C. occupation scratches an old itch,” Sabrina Haake dusted off the same tired script:
Trump is scary.
Trump is racist.
Trump is an authoritarian.
She worked hard to draw parallels between now and 1989, the Central Park Five, while digging her head in the sand, pretending that in nearly 40 years, nothing had changed.
That's what most of the Left has left, the delusion of rehashing the old caricatures of Trump instead of facing facts that even MSNBC has admitted: The crime in D.C. is real, and it's literally life or death to walk three blocks after dark.
Regardless of the power behind clicking those ruby reds, the numbers don't bend to reality.
Cracks on MSNBC
There was a time, probably around nine years ago, Joe Scarborough enthusiastically hosted Trump over on "Morning Joe." However, the allure of that blue pill, with its promise of high ratings, was too strong, and our hero changed. So when Scarborough, who rarely sided with, much less agreed with Trump, read a letter he received from a liberal friend that illustrated the palpable fear of living with the crime in the capital, it highlighted the fact that the narrative is slowly breaking.
Related: Even MSNBC Leftists Admit Trump Is Right About D.C. Crime Surge
Even Scarborough conceded that he saw the same patterns when he lived on Capitol Hill: Young teens carjacking, violent assaults after dark, and a city's worth of neighborhoods living under fear's boot.
When reality speaks louder than any talking point — right or left — no panel on Scarborough's show could ignore it. What Joe and the crew are starting to see is that D.C. is broken, and the only person trying to fix it is President Trump.
Crime by the Numbers
Data from the Justice Department show a 26% drop in violent crime in D.C. in 2025 compared to the previous year: Carjackings, shootings, and robberies are decreasing.
What those statistics don't tell is that despite downward trends, crime's danger doesn't disappear overnight. When subtracting around 25% from an incredibly high number, you still have a high number. However, what it does mean is that decisive leadership, something missing from D.C. in generations, is working.
On youth violence, the picture is nuanced:
- Around 900 juvenile arrests in 2025 so far, nearly 20% fewer than last year.
- Of those, 200 were tied to violent crimes and 48 were tied to carjackings.
- Independent data confirm the decline: the number of juvenile arrests in 2024 dropped to 496 from 2023.
- Still, minors account for 56% of carjacking arrests since August 2023, with some suspects as young as 12.
These statistics illustrate two critical points: First, progress is happening; second, intervention was required to make the first point work.
Salon called Trump's actions those of an authoritarian. But ask the people living in those neighborhoods who are walking home without the paralyzing fear they felt for decades: Would they subscribe to Salon's delusions, or enjoy Trump's work establishing reality?
Real Crime, Real Victims
One funny thing about statistics that many people forget is that those numbers represent real, hardworking people. The only people who don't find it funny are those who suffered.
A DOGE employee tried defending a woman being attacked and paid for it with a savage beating. If you need a microcosm of D.C.'s crisis, where the predators felt emboldened enough to commit acts of savagery because they knew that it was rare that they'd be prosecuted, and if they were, their punishment was laughingly light.
President Trump made things crystal clear: “If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, we will federalize this city. Lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14.”
What the left sees as tyranny, the rest of us see something quite simple. The basic demand of justice: Protect the innocent, punish the guilty, and restore confidence in the streets.
Delusion as a Business Model
Why do media cling to old narratives when data, unions, and victims express a different story? It's an old saying in newspapers: "If it bleeds, it leads." Fear sells.
For the left to admit that Trump is working to restore order eliminates the fairy tale the progressives have been spinning for years, where he's the villain, or when all else fails, he's Hitler.
The left retreats to delusions to protect their fantasy, calling each act of law enforcement oppression, while ignoring falling crime, and silencing the voice of every victim.
Unfortunately for leftists, delusions like that only exist on paper, while in real neighborhoods, people feel the difference when walking to their cars, when glass replaces boards in front of businesses, when children are left to play outside, where they belong.
One of the things Trump does is to ridicule the media, but it's realities like people see and feel mock the media's fiction more loudly than the president ever could.
History’s Reminder: Order Before Liberty
This isn't a new debate or isolated to a single city. The resurrection of New York City in the 1990s occurred only because leaders began to take crime seriously. Abraham Lincoln preserved the Union by using federal might to enforce the law. When local authorities in Little Rock refused to protect black students, Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the troops in.
Our freedom is secure only when order precedes it.
The media's delusion is that chaos gives freedom room to thrive, but history teaches the opposite. Without order and safety, the lived experience of freedom transforms into talking points.
Final Thoughts
When police unions back the president, while the media backs a delusion, we're left with a simple choice. One side finds people facing danger daily, while begging for strong leadership. On the other we see the media clinging to tired slogans and caricatures.
If the Left would open its eyes and use common sense, I know it doesn't exist in most cases, it would find that carjackings are falling, as are juvenile arrests. President Trump isn't occupying anything; he's rescuing a city from a failure in leadership. The people who know it, the police, residents, hell, even MSNBC, are starting to admit it.
The media's delusion might sell, but reality is saving lives.
