In D.C.'s Ward 7, which has one of the highest crime rates in the city, the East Washington Heights Baptist Church has occasionally shown up in the robbery statistics. There was an incident in March this year, when thieves took laptops. A few years earlier, someone broke in and stole communion wafers and vandalized the church building.
"For us, it's really a matter of how you react to crime," says Rev. Kip Banks, the church's pastor for more than two decades.
Since President Trump declared a "crime emergency" in the District of Columbia on Aug. 11, National Guard troops have patrolled the city's streets, and other federal law enforcement agencies have helped local police make hundreds of arrests.
The president and the mayor of D.C. say crime is down sharply since the deployment. But Banks says that while crime is a problem in D.C., and other cities, those federal dollars could be better spent elsewhere.
The following exchange has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Interview Highlights
Scott Simon: How much of a daily concern is crime in this neighborhood?
Kip Banks: Crime is always a daily concern in this neighborhood, But over the past year we have been rejoicing because crime has been going down. Here at the East Washington Heights Baptist Church, we have a daily prayer group at 7 a.m. every morning, and we pray about most of the crime that happens in the community. And lo and behold, for the past year, we've been praying less about murders happening in the city because crime has gone down. But in spite of that, the president declared that there was an emergency and a need for National Guard troops to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C. All the members that I know, none of them feel safer because of the call of the National Guard troops. If anything it's the exact opposite.
Scott Simon: What are you parishioners saying to you?
Kip Banks: They are not happy. They are burdened. They are troubled. Lifestyles have changed. Sadly, in this neighborhood, we don't have the best restaurants, we have to go across the river to dine. They want to go across the river, but they're scared to go across because they don't want to encounter troops. Not only that, members of my church, they have compassion for the least, the lost, and left behind. They are concerned about even ordering DoorDash or Uber Eats because they've seen the accounts where DoorDash drivers and Uber drivers have been taken away by ICE. Parents are upset – they're concerned about young Black men in particular — if they'll be targeted. Members are upset on a number of fronts.
Scott Simon: The mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser, who has not been an ally of President Trump in the past, said this week that she applauded the additional law enforcement. She said that carjackings are down by 87%, and crime overall is down 15%.
Kip Banks: There is a difference between policing and military occupation. There's a philosophy of how to deal with crime. It's a neighborhood philosophy where you get to know people, you get to understand what they're going through. In particular, as a church, we subscribe to the "beloved community," which is described in Acts 2, where all people have food to eat and all people have shelter. No matter what background, no matter what color, they all are loved. And this military occupation is hindering that. People don't feel safe.
Scott Simon: In the President's own words, the deployment in Washington, D.C., and the previous one in Los Angeles, might not be isolated. He talks about doing it elsewhere. Pastor, I wonder if you've talked to any colleagues in other cities.
Kip Banks: I have. I was in Boston this past Monday at a meeting of local pastors and I began chatting with them about what I was going through. And there's a palpable sense of outrage about using the forces of military, again, to police people. When you look at the Bible and Jesus, Jesus was the prince of peace. When Peter got out his sword because he wanted to strike someone that was coming to get Jesus, Jesus said, "Put your sword away. No, this is not how we operate. You are a child of God. When you make peace, blessed are the peacemakers, for they should be called the children of God." And so pastors across the country in Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles, they're very concerned. We need love, we need light. And the way of light is the way of Jesus Christ for us. And it's not the way of war.
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