Ex-Harris aide Sanders-Townsend says extra police will not make streets protected for all

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MSNBC host Symone Sanders-Townsend pushed again on elevated police presence in D.C., claiming throughout a panel Tuesday that, as a Black girl, she does not consider extra officers make communities safer—significantly in predominantly Black neighborhoods.

Sanders-Townsend, who served as chief spokesperson and senior adviser to former Vice President Kamala Harris earlier than becoming a member of MSNBC in 2022, spoke on President Donald Trump’s new initiative to cease crime within the nation’s capital.

Trump introduced Monday that he plans to deploy roughly 800 Nationwide Guard troops and assume oversight of the Metropolitan Police Division to deal with rising crime in Washington, D.C. The announcement precipitated shockwaves throughout media, however some, like MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, hinted that there could also be some reality to Trump saying there's a disaster.

"There was an issue in D.C. It’s not as dangerous because it was 2 or 3 years in the past, however it’s not as protected as Manhattan. It’s not as protected because the nation’s capital needs to be. By the way in which, I’ve lived in D.C. for 32 years. I can go chapter and verse in case you’d like me to," Scarborough stated.

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Symone Sanders Townsend, Co-Host MSNBC's The Weeknight, Former Chief Spokesperson for Vice President Harris seems on "Meet the Press" in Washington D.C. on Sunday, Could 4, 2025. (Picture by: Shannon Finney/NBC through Getty Photographs)

Sanders-Townsend appeared overtly shocked at Scarborough’s phrases and pushed again, citing her expertise as having lived in D.C. for the final 10 years and her husband operating the Restaurant Affiliation Metropolitan Washington.

"It's perceived violence amplified by some precise actual acts of violence," she stated earlier than including, "the way in which I’ve heard D.C. being described this morning is prefer it’s a metropolis beneath siege, prefer it’s a harmful place, clutching your pearls, you’ve obtained to maintain your bag beneath your gown once you go away the home. And that’s simply not true."

She stated that the dialog is revolving round these cases of "juvenile crime" that Trump is utilizing as a pretext for his "authoritatrain overreach."

Sanders-Townsend argued there's simply barely sufficient actual crime to make individuals assume that Trump could have some professional motive to take such motion, however all of the whereas, persons are "ignoring the truth that extra cops on the road will not be going to repair the problem of juvenile crime."

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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press about deploying federal regulation enforcement brokers in Washington to bolster the native police presence within the Press Briefing Room on the White Home, in Washington D.C., U.S., August 11, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (Reuters)

Scarborough urged her to make clear, asking, "You don’t assume extra police make streets safer?"

"No, Joe. I’m a Black girl in America," she stated. "I don't all the time assume that extra police make streets safer. Once you stroll down the streets of Georgetown, you don’t see a police officer on each nook, however you don’t really feel unsafe."

"So what's it about speaking about locations like southeast D.C., proper, Ward 8, if you'll, that individuals say, ‘Effectively, we'd like extra officers to make us protected?’ I feel we've to rethink what security means in America," Sanders-Townsend argued.

Crime in America's capital metropolis of Washington, D.C. has been a constantly controversial matter, significantly because the COVID-19 pandemic aggravated many points throughout America's main cities. ((Picture by STR/NurPhoto through Getty Photographs))