00:00So you have one more week and then we'll see you at school. I have time for a few questions. Yes, please introduce yourself. Yep.
00:08Can you tell us how you feel about the additional National Guard troops coming from other states, West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio?
00:15Do you feel that this is kind of usurped your authority even more given the president's federalization efforts?
00:21We don't have any authority over the D.C. Guard or any other guards, but I think it kind of makes the point that this is not about D.C. crime.
00:32Any other questions? Yep.
00:35Sam P.K. Collins, Washington Informer. Some pretty damning video came out this weekend, an organizer with Harry's Wilder's Dreams detained by Metro Police.
00:45Given that school is coming up, what guarantee do you have to parents that their children will be safe in their interactions with police officers coming to and from school?
00:55Well, we, as you know, rely on our Metro system as our school transportation system.
01:03You also know that all of our children have a kids' ride-free card, and so they have access to use the Metro to get to and from school and to their after-school activities.
01:19So there should be no reason for a child to have a negative experience with Metro Transit or any other police related to fare evasion.
01:31And we continue to expect our children to behave in a good way, in a lawful way, and get to school and be ready to learn.
01:42We will, and I have reviewed those reports, and I'll continue to review them with MPD to see if there's something we need to follow up on.
01:53If I may follow up?
01:54I'm sorry?
01:55If I may follow up?
01:56Sure.
01:57All that notwithstanding, what guarantee do you have that MPD and law enforcement under your jurisdiction will do their job in just standing within the bounds of the law as it relates to their engagement with young people?
02:11How we interact with our police officers hasn't changed.
02:15They're always expected to follow the law and engage in constitutional policing.
02:20Our residents continue to have the safeguards that we have in place in our law and our protocols, including body-worn camera, including the ability to make complaints to the police complaints board.
02:34So no one is going to sit up here and guarantee that anything.
02:38What I can guarantee is that we have a framework of laws and protocols that support constitutional policing.
02:45Yes.
02:46Thank you, Mayor.
02:47Jenny Gaffert with the Washington Post.
02:49There's been video of ICE arrests, you know, spreading all across social media, particularly one at 14 at R-Northwest over the weekend where ICE agents tackled a delivery driver and took him into custody.
03:02I guess what's your reaction when you're seeing these videos in the city, how they're affecting people?
03:06And then a follow-up, given that the judge in the lawsuit has yet to officially rule on whether MPD will be forced to cooperate with ICE, what do you want MPD officers to be doing in the meantime as they're going around the city and potentially being asked to cooperate with these kinds of arrests?
03:25So let me start.
03:26I don't want to comment on individual incidents because I won't have all of the details.
03:31I will say this, however, the focus should be on violent crime, and that's what has been promoted, that we're focusing on violent criminals and violent offenders and violence.
03:44And nobody is against focusing on driving down any level of violence.
03:49And so if this is really about immigration enforcement, I think the administration should make that play.
03:57Yep.
03:59Sorry.
04:01You've talked a lot about how one of your goals is just steering the city to the other side of this administration with its home rule intact.
04:08Given the current situation, do you think the city's home rule is at risk, and how are you reflecting on this moment as it sort of seems like it's some of your concerns or potential concerns about this administration are starting to be realized?
04:23I don't think my concerns have – are not new, all right?
04:30And I think anybody who has followed the rhetoric from the campaign throughout these attacks and the rhetoric around them is not new.
04:43Yep.
04:44Marielle Carbone with D.C. News Now.
04:45I'm just wondering if you've had any conversations over the last week with your federal partners just about agents identifying themselves, having their faces covered.
04:53It's a concern we're hearing and seeing.
04:55We have.
04:55I think I mentioned that last week about being very important to us, that agents be identified.
05:02I did ask the chief to have further conversation about these masks.
05:07There's no reason for a law enforcement official to be masked.
05:14Did she get any response on that?
05:16I asked her to talk to her.
05:18I will continue to have to follow up.
05:21Yep.
05:22Brad Bell with Channel 7.
05:23Yes.
05:23A couple questions.
05:24Some messaging coming from the administration, the White House today, saying that D.C. is being made safer.
05:30And they put out some arrest numbers and numbers of guns being seized.
05:34How would you characterize this operation?
05:36Has it made D.C. safer?
05:39NPD takes guns off the street every day and every week.
05:43And any time you have a surge of officers, I would expect that you have some results.
05:49I say repeatedly, we need 500 more officers in D.C.
05:54We need 500 more officers, get 500 more officers' worth of results.
06:00And so what is not necessary, however, is this kind of commandeering of the attempted commandeering of the force itself.
06:10And the expanded, I think, work that is not related to violence.
06:17So additionally, with the takeover, what does that mean?
06:22What coordination is there?
06:25Well, let me correct you.
06:26Let me correct you.
06:27There is no takeover.
06:28What there is is a surge in federal law enforcement.
06:32And that surge in federal law enforcement necessarily has to coordinate with the Metropolitan Police Department under the leadership of Pamela Smith, the chief of police.
06:44Are they coordinating to your satisfaction?
06:45I think there's going to be work to be done, for sure.
06:50But, you know, there's work to be done.
06:54Yes.
06:55We've heard that the National Guard may be using weapons to these soldiers.
07:01That's a question for the Department of the Army.
07:03Well, you must be concerned about that since they're not trained in law enforcement.
07:07They can't do law enforcement as far as I know.
07:11So that's got to be concerning to you, that if they're armed.
07:15That is not what I have been advised.
07:22And unless their orders have somehow changed, I don't know that they can engage in arrest.
07:30Yes.
07:31If I can follow up.
07:32Yes, sure.
07:32Is there any coordination between your office and the White House, Pam Bondi, Cash Patel?
07:39But are you getting the answers to your questions, or is it not as clear as you would like it?
07:48I think we're seven or eight days into this situation, and it evolves.
07:52What does that mean?
07:55It means just what I said.
07:58It's evolving or it evolves?
08:01I'm not going to get into the difference in suffixes with you.
08:07Mayor Belzer.
08:07Oh, yes.
08:08It's changed from day to day.
08:11Let me put it that way.
08:12It better be.
08:13Hold on.
08:15Excuse me.
08:16Sort of on that note, you know, on last Monday, you'd come out and said that while this was
08:20unsettling, that potentially this could be a productive partnership with law enforcement
08:24over 30 days.
08:25Has your approach or your strategy in dealing with the administration changed since that
08:33time in terms of whether this could be productive or are there more concerns?
08:37And are there specific things you're watching that could present a risk to the D.C. community
08:43that would change that strategy further?
08:46Well, let me just put it to you this way.
08:49We are, I will engage our government in ensuring that we are following the law.
08:57Now, what you haven't heard me say any differently in the last seven days is that the district will
09:02follow the law.
09:04When there have been changes or attempts to change that was outside of the law, that's why
09:11we challenge those changes in court.
09:14And as a result, those changes have been backed off from.
09:18And so our strategy will deal with the reality as it is presented.
09:27Even just the second part of that question, even within the law, are there particular areas
09:32you're watching closely that if it could present a risk to your community that you would have
09:38to?
09:38This is what we're watching closely.
09:41How can we be responsive in a way that is strategic and can be helpful?
09:46Another way to put it, how can we respond in a way that's strategic and averts harm?
09:55And I can't give you a laundry list, but I can assure you that very smart people who work
10:04across the government are working on that.
10:06And we are organizing ourselves in a way to deal with this incident response that is most
10:15efficient for D.C. government.
10:18But what I would caution everybody to think is because you're all very logical, smart people,
10:25and you want all of this to make sense.
10:27This doesn't make sense.
10:29You know it doesn't make sense.
10:30The numbers on the ground in the district don't support 1,000 people from other states
10:36coming to Washington, D.C.
10:38You know that.
10:40We're in this beautiful school with children singing about to go to school in a beautifully
10:49renovated building with the most prepared teachers in the country.
10:53You know the facts on the ground don't support this.
10:57You know that.
10:58You know it couldn't be done in a neighboring state.
11:02You know that.
11:03This is not about something that fits into logic.
11:10So if you want to know what's happening, the question is really not for us.
11:15It's for why the military would be deployed in an American city to police Americans.
11:25That's the question.
11:26And it's not for me.
11:28Yes.
11:28Mayor, the last message for community members who are obviously concerned with the high-end
11:33immigration enforcement.
11:34And they're going to be returning to school.
11:36We saw some of the previous threats that the administration made in schools gearing up,
11:41Mundo Verde.
11:42And now they're going to be walking to school and they're seeing people getting picked up.
11:45What's your message to those families as they're bracing for it?
11:48This is my message.
11:50I think as a nation, we need to demand comprehensive immigration reform.
11:56There needs to be a pathway to citizenship for hardworking people who have made this country
12:03their home.
12:04And we need to separate the discussion of enforcement against violent offenders and everyday hardworking
12:16people who have made this country their home.
12:19For us in D.C., we have many immigrants who have lived here illegally because of TPS protections.
12:26This administration needs to make those TPS protections clear and stand behind them.
12:33We have many people who have immigrated to this country who have valid work permits and student
12:40permits and student visas.
12:42We need to make plain that they are not under attack.
12:47And what needs to be made plain is what has been discussed for many, many months is that
12:53violent offenders would be dealt with.
12:55And that is what we have to focus on.
12:59So for people who are anxious and afraid, I'm sorry that this is happening.
13:03But the change that needs to happen is with comprehensive immigration reform and leadership at the
13:10national level.
13:11I'm not familiar with that case yet.
13:29I'll probably, if that's an MPD officer, I'll get briefed on it and ask the chief if there
13:34were other officers that were involved.
13:36But do you think they're being forced to adopt more aggressive tactics than they had before
13:41all this happened?
13:42The standards that our police work under haven't changed.
13:46All right.
13:47Okay.
13:48All right.
13:49You have the last question.
13:52Mayor, I know you've had, I'm Alan Etter from WTO.
13:55Yes, good to see you.
13:56Good to see you.
13:57I know you've had a chance to meet with the Attorney General.
14:00Have you had any direct interaction with the President?
14:02Do you want that?
14:03And what would you say to the President if you have that opportunity?
14:05The President issued an executive order that names Pam Bondi his designee, and that's
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