Enraged protesters squared off against DC cops and tried to warn drivers to avoid a police checkpoint as President Trump’s crime crackdown in the nation’s capital continues.
“Why are you here? You are trying to arrest innocent people? What’s your purpose? What’s your goal? What’s the motive?” one of the protesters lining the 14th Street Northwest corridor yelled at officers who had set up a traffic safety checkpoint.
“Why won’t you show your face? Do you look yourself in the mirror and think ‘I did a good job today?’” the activist brayed, as others shouted “get off our streets!” waving signs that said “ICE” and urging drivers to turn left to steer clear of the checkpoint.
But it turns out the roadblock had nothing to do with the stepped-up enforcement effort and was part of a weekly safety compliance checkpoint that’s been going on since 2023, the Metropolitan Police Department told Fox Digital.
“During the checkpoint, 344 vehicles passed through, 28 were stopped, 38 notice of infractions were issued, and MPD made one arrest for No Permit and Counterfeit Tags,” a spokesperson told the outlet.
A handful of Homeland Security agents were also spotted at the checkpoint, the Washington Post reported, which wound down around 11 p.m. Wednesday.
Homeless camps around the Capital were also cleaned up.
Elsewhere in the capital on Wednesday, an illegal immigrant from Peru was detained by federal officers and threatened to hurt himself with a butcher knife after he was pulled over while driving his food truck.
“Illegal Peruvian alien Jimmy Anderson Ayala Mayuri presented a large butcher knife to federal officers and motioned that he’d harm himself with it when we stopped his food truck on National Park Service property in DC today,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement wrote on X.
The agency said Mayuri briefly barricaded himself inside the truck before he was taken into custody.
Trump announced Monday that the federal government was assuming control of police in DC in an effort to crack down on violent crime in the district. The National Guard was also deployed, as Trump told reporters the murder rate in the city has eclipsed those in Bogotá, Colombia, and Mexico City.
The takeover was executed using section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, under which the commander-in-chief can assume control of local police on an emergency basis for a period of 30 days.
