If anyone could speak to how the Metropolitan Police Department’s (MPD) cooperation with federal law enforcement agencies has affected young people, it’s the Rev. William Young IV.
Young recently stood outside of the John A. Wilson Building in Northwest, alongside other religious leaders, as he spoke about the difficulty he’s found in engaging youth who don’t want to be anywhere near the men and women in blue.
“We have been doing peace walks in Ward 8 for the last several years, and…we have been well supported by MPD,” Young, pastor of Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ, said on the morning of Dec. 4. “But since the occupation, young people who have participated in those walks have told me, ‘If the police have to be here, then we’re not going to walk.’ I had to tell MPD to back away…because the relationship between police and people [is] at an impasse.”
On Thursday, Young was the first speaker in a lineup that included Oliver Merino of Fams Not Feds; the Rev. Delonte Gholston of Peace Fellowship Church; the Rev. Rachel Cornwell of Dumbarton United Methodist Church, and Sana Saddiq of Muslims for Just Futures.
Soon after making their remarks on the steps of the Wilson Building, the activists and clergypeople, part of the Washington Interfaith Network (WIN), attended a marathon hearing conducted in the council chambers by the D.C. Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety. That hearing took place amid demands by Young, other clergypeople and numerous other District residents that the Bowser administration no longer cooperate with the Trump administration.
Since the expiration of the federalization period, when D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser continued MPD’s relationship with ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies, reports continue to surface about MPD accompanying federal agents as the latter detains migrants, accosts Black youth, and nearly kills motorists.
For Young, no explanation suffices in legitimizing MPD-federal law enforcement collusion.
“I heard an advisor to the mayor a couple of months ago say to Ward 8 faith leaders that — talking about the occupation — that the mayor is playing chess, not checkers, with the president,” Young said on Thursday morning. “Well I prefer them not to play any games when the people, when the lives of real people are on the chessboard. And I don’t trust this administration to even know how to play chess. They just cheat anyway.”
On the steps of the Wilson Building, Young led the dozens of people who gathered in the bitter cold in prayer. But not before giving a call to action he said was most appropriate for the Season of Advent.
“Today we must, we must, we must for the people of this city say to the council, stop yielding to Caesar. Fight back for God’s children,” Young bellowed.
Testimony About the Juvenile Curfew and MPD-Federal Law Enforcement Cooperation
More than 150 people— many of whom included youth and youth advocates— testified before D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) and the D.C. Council Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety throughout much of Dec. 4.
The hearing focused on: evidence-based gun violence reduction, vehicular terrorism, first responder retention, the Child Fatality Review Committee, and the juvenile curfew. Throughout much of the day, public witnesses took ample opportunity to weigh in on MPD cooperation with ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies.
The young people who spoke before the council committee also spoke about the emergency juvenile curfew, which the council, earlier in the week, voted to extend to April 2026. Their commentary took place just as Black Swan Academy, in collaboration with Free DC, Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, the T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project, CARE Anacostia, and a bevy of other organizations, conducted a youth rally for resources in Freedom Plaza, right across the street from the Wilson Building.
On Thursday evening, Samaiya Seabron, a junior at Columbia Heights Education Campus in Northwest and member of Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, implored the council to invest more in recreational activities and spaces for youth, and less so in what she called punitive measures that feed the school-to-prison pipeline.
“We don’t have many spaces to just be teenagers to exist. Whether it’s at school, the Metro, and for many of our homes, we aren’t given that luxury,” Samaiya said. “We don’t need more uniforms or curfews. We don’t need more prying eyes of teachers, administrators, and law enforcement. We need and deserve safe spaces. Spaces like the Congress Heights pool that was just voted down by [the] D.C. council. Spaces where we can gather on nights like Halloween, but instead we get confinement, distrust, and more rules.”
In his testimony, Atrayu Lee, student body president at Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter School in Southeast, compiled several years of data that debunked notions about the effectiveness of a juvenile curfew. He too demanded that the council pivots to long-term solutions.
“The ‘doing something is better than doing nothing’ narrative isn’t the best argument because the ‘something’ criminalizes young people for being outside, as if that’s an inherent issue that absolutely leads to violence,” said Atrayu, 17. “What’s needed to address the issue of youth violence is an immense investment in mental health services and mentorship institutions to adapt for the broken homes in our communities. What’s needed to address the issue of youth violence is a youth advisory council on youth affairs to provide solutions to our own problems.”
Later, in his exchange with Pinto about fights that move from social media to the streets, Atrayu questioned the notion that swathes of youth are wreaking havoc on District communities.
“Hundreds of kids showed up to fight together?” Atrayu said in response to Pinto. “I’m having a hard time imagining that. You know, it sounds a bit of a reach. And if you’re out in front, a real thing is, it’s not something that happens very frequently.”
Earlier in the day, during her testimony before Pinto and D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D), Elizabeth Paige White questioned the legality of MPD-federal agent engagement of Black people out and about on D.C. streets. As she made her case, White invoked the names of Philip Brown and Justin Brian Nelson, the two Black men she’s representing in the aftermath of their near deadly encounter with Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) officers.
“The stops that are happening right now are illegal. Not only are they illegal, but they are dangerous,” White, a criminal defense and civil rights attorney, said on the morning of Dec. 4. “And the fact that HSI agents or that our MPD officers are engaging in chases that they are not supposed to be engaged in in the first place that violate MPD rules and then step aside and let HSI agents pull out their weapons and shoot at unarmed citizens is incredibly dangerous and problematic.”
Since the incident involving Brown, when MPD didn’t include the federal officer’s shots in its arrest report, White has fought for more information related to the events of Oct. 17.
On Thursday, she continued along on that crusade.
“I’m calling for the immediate release of the body-worn camera footage in both of my cases and investigation for the immediate end of this task force,” White said at the end of her testimony.
Toward the end of the nearly 12-hour hearing, a slew of government witnesses testified before the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety.
Those officials included: Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah and Andre Wright, MPD’s executive assistant chief for patrol operations. In her exchange with D.C. Councilmember Matt Frumin (D-Ward 3), Appiah attempted to explain what she believed to be the conundrum in MPD’s post-surge cooperation with federal law enforcement agencies.
“We’re not Chicago. We’re not L.A. We’re not these other places because our neighbor, our literal neighbors, is the White House, and at the other end is Congress. They’re not leaving, and they’ve made that clear,” Appiah told Frumin. “And so everything we’ve tried to do on a near weekly basis at my level, the person who’s responsible for managing a White House that is very involved, is reinforce our values, what we don’t want to do, what we’re asking to draw away from, what we are continuing to request not have happen, while also recognizing that how do we use these federal entities that they are set on having here in a way that allows us to drive down crime.”
Terra Martin, the mother of Dalaneo Martin, a youth shot and killed by U.S. Park Police in 2023, counts among those skeptical about the D.C. government’s motives, and even more skeptical about the D.C. Council’s passion for stopping MPD-federal law enforcement collusion.
“I want Pinto to stop continuing to lead the path of [the] Trump agenda,” Martin said as she spoke about her late son’s situation and what youth are currently experiencing. “People that’s trying to protect the kids get arrested because they don’t want to let the Black kids up [at the Metro], but they let all the white kids up. MPD [is] stepping back and letting the feds kill us because they know…the federal laws are different to sue them.”
In her testimony, Tia Bell demanded that Pinto and her colleagues get back to the basics. As executive director of the T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project, Bell has advocated for strategies centered on the collective healing of gun violence victims and those most likely to be future victims.
That fight is ongoing, she said.
“It feels like youth are still not centered in prevention strategies,” Bell told The Informer as she reflected on Aug. 11, the beginning of the 30-day federal surge. “It felt like, if our city had something to point to in terms of youth strategy or showing long-term investment or planning, we may not have gotten to where we are— where our president thought that he needed to inflict federal violence on our city and criminalize our young people further.”
In her opening comments, Pinto, who has yet to conduct a standalone hearing about MPD-federal agency cooperation, weighed in on the issue. As other elected officials have done this year, Pinto pointed out the limits of home rule, and how such limits have paved the way for the Trump administration’s intrusion on local affairs.
“Because our toolbox looks different, that means our strategy sometimes looks different than the strategies that other states implement,” Pinto said on Thursday. “But I want to be very clear, that does not mean the rule of law does not apply to our residents every single day.”
Pinto’s remarks came just one day after a U.S. District Court judge ruled that immigration arrests in the nation’s capital must stop. “This is an important decision,” Pinto said. “I call on Congress to exercise its power to ensure that federal agents are properly trained, understand local law, and importantly, do not violate our human rights.”
Martin, executive director of Raise One, Teach One Dalaneo Martin Foundation, counts among those still skeptical about the council’s appetite for change.
“What are we doing?” she asked. “We keep putting garbage in the seat and expecting something different….[D.C. Councilmember Brooke] Pinto needs to go, [D.C. Council Chairman] Phil Mendelson needs to go. Trayon White needs to go. We need to clean the whole damn house, and let’s start over.”
Activists Further Explore a Common Thread
Since Aug. 11, when President Donald J. Trump invoked Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act, Black District residents, members of migrant communities, and those from more privileged backgrounds have united in their criticism of the Bowser administration.
That spirit of unity permeated throughout Go-Go Appreciation Week, when go-go enthusiasts explored the cultural linkages between Black and Latino communities, both of which are feeling the effects of MPD-federal law enforcement collusion.
That spirit of collaboration continued on the steps of the Wilson Building on Dec. 4 when Merino shed light on what community members had known all along.
“The same federal agents that are tearing our immigrant families apart are the same agents that racially profile Black Washingtonians,” said Merino, whose organizing work has taken him as far as Charlotte, North Carolina. “The same federal agents that are trampling over people’s and immigrants’ constitutional rights are the same agents that have shot at Black motorists. The same federal agents that kidnap immigrants off the streets are the same that make public places less safe for Black youth.”