The States Sending Race Soldiers to DC Have Worse Crime Problems: 53 Cities Across Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia had higher Murder Rates than DC in 2024

From [HERE] The residents of Washington, D.C., have responded to President Donald Trump’s deployment of federal law enforcement and National Guard into their neighborhoods with revulsion, vitriol and hurled hoagies. 

Trump declared a crime emergency in the nation’s capitol on Aug. 11, even though violence rates recently plunged to the lowest levels seen in decades. A recent Washington Post-Schar School poll found that 79 percent of Washingtonians oppose Trump’s actions and 69 percent do so “strongly.” 

After Trump deployed 800 members of the D.C. National Guard, six Republican governors volunteered hundreds of their own guardsmen: West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. 

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said sending troops from other states, “doesn’t make sense,” but she believes the district has little power to stop them. 

That got us wondering: How would those governors feel if National Guard troops from other states were ordered onto their streets, perhaps to patrol one of the 53 cities in those states with a higher murder rate than Washington’s? After all, if D.C. is in the throes of a crime emergency worthy of a militarized response — and you have no concerns that response might backfire — then why aren’t the good people of Jackson, Mississippi or North Charleston, South Carolina? 

According to a Democracy Docket analysis of the FBI’s Crime in the United States Annual Report, using Offenses Known to Law Enforcement, by State by City in 2024, 53 cities across Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia had higher murder rates than D.C. in 2024. 

Some of the cities have violent crime rates significantly worse than D.C. Memphis saw 2,501 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2024, more than double Washington’s 926. The murder rate in Memphis was 41 per 100,000 residents, compared to 26 for D.C.

Washington did see a spike in violent crime and car thefts during the COVID pandemic, but that peaked in 2023. Violent crime dropped by over a third — 35 percent — in 2024, matching a trend in cities across the nation, including Memphis. 

Despite the GOP’s focus on Democratic-led cities, crime is a problem for Republican towns, too. Shreveport, Louisiana, which has a Republican mayor, has a higher murder rate than DC (27 per 100,000 residents), and a higher violent crime rate (1,228 per 100,000 residents). [MORE]