Protecting our freedom at the corner of 18th and S NW, Dupont Circle

While occasionally it is dangerous for the residents of the mainland colony known as the District of Columbia, it is mostly absurd. Over the weekend, I came across the above picture of the National Guard in D.C. on Bluesky. It’s at the corner of 18th and S Streets NW, in Dupont Circle. Yes, they are standing in a formation that limits the ability of my neighbors to ambush them.

But that’s not the most absurd thing. The taupe building they’re standing in front of recently, according to Zillow, sold for three million dollars. When I looked at the crimes at that intersection, going back to 2012, there have never been any violent crimes during daylight hours (in fact, all but one of the crimes to have occurred there happened between 2022-2023, when crime in D.C. had a surge*).

In other words, this is an extremely safe neighborhood, and we certainly don’t need to park four guardsmen on the corner there during the daylight hours. But freedom isn’t freedom, as they used to say…

*In no small part because the criminal justice system stopped arresting and convicting violent criminals. How that happened is a matter of debate (to what extent was it the police, and to what extent was it due to federal prosecutors being unwilling–or unable–to bring cases to court).