Janeese Lewis George preparing to be socialist wrecking ball for Trump’s DC crime agenda

Jerrell Jackson’s criminal journey made him cross paths with police in the District of Columbia for more than a decade before they gained the help of U.S. troops.Since 2010, Jackson has been convicted, in two separate cases, of possessing a gun his criminal record barred him from owning, carrying without a license, threats to kidnap or injure someone, assaulting a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon, and firearm possession during a violent crime, court records show. He was also arrested in traffic and drug cases that the district dismissed for lack of prosecution.The Washington resident now faces federal charges after officials said he shot a National Guard member in the leg on Oct. 18 in the district’s Barracks Row neighborhood, which has a reputation for rowdiness. The troops tried to break up a fight involving Jackson with verbal commands, but he started a shootout that led to the Guard members wounding him and detaining him until the Metropolitan Police Department arrived, according to the Justice Department. The soldiers were on routine patrols that President Donald Trump began in August 2025 as part of his D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force. Jackson is representative of the phenomenon of repeat offenders that Trump blames on lenient criminal justice policies, a problem that drove him to assert more control over the district since returning to office. But while his DOJ portrays the Barracks Row response as a success story, Democratic mayoral nominee Janeese Lewis George sees such collaboration as overreach and seeks to stop it if elected.She would aim to reverse Trump’s crime policies. She advocates cutting back joint operations with the task force such as traffic stops, ending any trace of cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and legally challenging the National Guard’s presence.The socialist front-runner’s agenda could hinder teamwork credited for a drop in crime by Trump officials, conservative public safety experts, and Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser.“I think people sort of feel it in D.C.,” local attorney Jonathan Fahey, a former federal and state prosecutor, told the Washington Examiner. “It just has a vibe of feeling safer, and people seem to appreciate that more.”Greater numbers of law enforcement officers patrolling together send “a strong message” and help prosecutors obtain better evidence for cases, Fahey said: “When they’re out there, it makes people feel safe, and it also makes the criminals think twice about doing stuff because they think they’re going to get caught and there’s going to be a lot of resources to put out their crime.”Lewis George’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Washington Examiner. With only third-party and independent rivals, the member of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Council of the District of Columbia is highly favored to win her race in the overwhelmingly Democratic district.Since the full crackdown began in August 2025, Trump’s operations have brought both National Guard patrols and a heightened federal presence throughout the district. The president specified in a March 2025 executive order that the Safe and Beautiful Task Force would tackle crime in both tourist-friendly areas and historically more dangerous ones, including Anacostia, the Suitland Parkway, and D.C. Route 295. Federal officials have since boasted of more than 16,000 task force-related arrests across all eight wards.What the Trump administration sees as efficiency, Lewis George calls wasteful.“Just yesterday, you know, my husband and I were riding up North Capitol Street, and … the MPD officer was just making a routine stop,” she told NBC4 Washington in August. “It looked like it was a traffic stop, and it was [Drug Enforcement Administration], FBI, Homeland Security.”“It’s just like, why do we need all this for a routine traffic stop?” she said. “It’s such a waste of American taxpayer dollars, what is happening.”She added that she would sign an executive order so that officers “do not have to participate in those type of efforts.”Is the task force working? Murders have dropped by 45%, carjackings by 64%, and robberies by 33% in Washington since August 2025, according to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office, which prosecutes the district’s federal and local crimes.Her office and the district inspector general previously found that the MPD manipulated crime data to portray a decrease before Trump’s presidency. Bowser likewise claimed that Trump was exaggerating crime before the law enforcement surge, but she later acknowledged to Congress that the federal operations “accelerated” the decrease.“Through President Trump’s Make DC Safe and Beautiful initiative, the District is experiencing historic lows in crime,” a spokesperson for Pirro’s office told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “We must build on that progress and ensure Washington remains safe for residents and visitors alike.“The U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to enforce the law, prosecute crime, and work with our law enforcement partners to protect the public. Our mission does not change based on who occupies the mayor’s office.”Lewis George is not giving enough thought as to why police might value federal help for seemingly routine work, critics told the Washington Examiner.“When she sees the traffic stop, the one thing she’s not seeing is the reason they were pulled over,” Fahey said.“I think we have evidence that the guard deployment in D.C. reduced crime,” Manhattan Institute criminal justice researcher Charles Lehman said, pointing to a data analysis by the Niskanen Center, a centrist think tank in Washington. “That same evidence makes clear that a major driver of the recent decline in violence in D.C. is MPD doing exactly the kind of enforcement Lewis George is scorning, i.e., traffic enforcement in a strategic fashion.”Her staffing agenda The backdrop to Lewis George’s plans is an MPD staffing crisis that has persisted since 2020, a year when anti-police activism and budget cuts made the policing profession less attractive. The MPD reported 3,163 sworn officers in September, short of Bowser’s goal of 4,000. Lewis George’s campaign platform says she will address the problem by expanding a cadet program and benefits, reducing overtime, and swapping officers with “mental and behavioral health professionals” to respond to some emergencies.“There is absolutely zero reason to refuse federal assistance when MPD remains substantially understaffed relative to the pre-2020 norm,” Lehman told the Washington Examiner. “I am sure other, saner jurisdictions will be happy to have the additional manpower, but this seems like pure virtue signaling — not crime-prevention policy.”Lewis George has scarce options for combatting National Guard patrols set to continue through 2028. However, she promised the leftist group Free DC in a questionnaire that she would support D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s legal battle against the troop deployment. She also agreed to advocate for the district, rather than the president, to have control over the local Guard members.Freezing out ICE agents Washington has had “sanctuary” policies for illegal immigrants for years. The Department of Homeland Security has accused the district of ignoring detainer requests for violent offenders in jail. However, agreements between Trump and Bowser’s administration have allowed the MPD to share certain information about individuals if asked by any agent enforcing immigration law. The arrangement also allows the police to provide transportation to immigration officials and detainees.Officers often remain at the scene of an incident with Trump’s task force whether or not immigration enforcement is happening, according to a February MPD report to the D.C. Council. Police seek to “promote officer and public safety” and “enhance community trust” with body camera recordings in those situations, the MPD told the council.Pulling back cooperation further will only increase ICE’s need to have an imposing presence, the DHS told the Washington Examiner.“Partnerships with law enforcement are critical to having the resources we need to arrest criminal illegal aliens across the country,” a spokesperson said. “When politicians bar local law enforcement from working with DHS, our law enforcement officers have to have a more visible presence so that we can find and apprehend the criminals let out of jails and back into communities.”“When they cooperate, it reduces the amount of manpower to remove an illegal alien criminal,” Fahey, who held multiple roles at ICE and DHS, told the Washington Examiner. “Because, say, for example, they’re sitting in a jail. All it literally takes is, you know, a call to the jail and maybe one or two officers picking them up, taking them over to ICE processing and detention, as opposed to having a whole team having to go out on the street to look for people, to have to interview witnesses.”The obstacles Lewis George may create would not ultimately stop immigration enforcement, only make it “more burdensome or more complicated,” Fahey said. Less cooperation also makes federal agents less safe when on-the-ground immigration enforcement is required, he argued.A political struggle brews Lewis George gave socialists hope in 2020 by winning her seat at the D.C. Council against a more centrist opponent.“Janeese’s victory marks a turning point in DC politics, replacing one of the Mayor’s closest allies with a Black socialist and DSA member who supports defunding the police and investing in our communities,” a DSA member declared at the time.Lewis George defended herself against accusations that she supported defunding the police by boasting that she voted to fund the police multiple times as a D.C. Council member.The DSA supports abolishing police and prisons as official stances and is known to pressure endorsees publicly to live up to its radical priorities. The group’s Washington chapter did not respond to requests for comment from the Washington Examiner.INSIDE THE LEFTIST NETWORK WORKING TO SABOTAGE TRUMP’S DC PROSECUTIONSTrump threatened in June to exert more control over the district if Lewis George takes the local government in a hostile direction. He previously took temporary control over the MPD under the federal Home Rule Act after declaring a crime emergency.“I wouldn’t like it,” Trump told reporters about Lewis George winning. “Maybe we take back Washington and run it on a federal basis. We won’t put up with it.”