Changing Face Of A City Moscow On
Soldiers in uniform on a Moscow street. ()Photo by Sergey Beschastnykh on Unsplash)
Until just recently, Washington, DC was always one of my favorite places to visit. When in the nation’s capital, it was hard not to think about the concept of democracy. I mean, after all, this city is sort of the ‘cradle of democracy,’ and it seems that there’s always an election taking place in or near it. But, as I used to walk around the city, it was not Congress, the White House, or the other fancy government buildings that reminded me most of what democracy is all about. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy walking in Washington. The scenery is fantastic, and the buildings are impressive, but it’s the life of the city that most amused and intrigued me.
Washington, DC, is a city of demonstrations; there used to be a demonstration for or against something happening somewhere in the city almost every day of the year. On the sidewalk outside the White House you could find people demonstrating for and against gun control – there was one guy, for instance, who had been at his post every day that I could remember for over six years; at the Department of State there were usually protestors against our Israel policy, for the Dalai Lama; you name it, there was a placard, march, or vigil for or against it somewhere in the city.
And, it wasn’t just national political or international issues on display. Near the offices of a construction firm downtown, not far from the White House, I once saw a group of striking workers conducting a loud, but orderly, demonstration against what they claimed were the company’s unfair labor practices. It used to be hard to exit the Foggy Bottom subway station near George Washington University without having to run a gauntlet of college students handing out flyers supporting PETA, or ‘Save the Whales,’ or another of the causes that college students find time to support.
Why did this impress me so? There were/are several reasons. For one thing, in most cases, unless the group protesting intended to parade down a public street, no police permit was required. And, except for the presence of uniformed Secret Service agents around the White House, there was seldom any police presence. A group of people could gather on the sidewalk. If they didn’t accost passersby or impede the flow of traffic, it was entirely legal and protected by the ‘freedom of assembly’ provision of the Constitution.
You didn’t like the president’s policy on health care? Stand in front of the White House and tell him so in the most vigorous terms. You will not be beaten, harassed, or arrested. ‘Freedom of expression’ is not just an empty phrase in our Constitution; police authorities protected it, even when it was they who were being criticized. Now, all this freedom didn’t mean you could vandalize cars, break windows, or push pedestrians around. Try that, and you’d find yourself in handcuffs on the way to jail. The same was true if you tried to harass, intimidate, or assault someone who is demonstrating for or against something, and you disagreed with them.
That began to change following the 2016 election. By the spring of 2020, during the demonstrations protesting the George Floyd killing, then-President Trump asked if Black Lives Matter demonstrators in DC couldn’t be shot, “Just shoot them in the legs or something?”, he reportedly asked Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Defense officials also pushed back on Trump’s desire to deploy active-duty forces against demonstrators in the capital.
Fast forward to 2025 and Trump’s second term, and things in the nation’s capital are as different as night and day. Claiming that crime was out of control in DC, despite statistics showing a drop in violent crime, in August Trump began deployment of federalized National Guard troops to patrol the capital’s streets, and took control of the city’s police force. Furthermore, rather than just using the DC National Guard, units were brought in from Texas and West Virginia, an unprecedented move that turned the city into something that reminded me of my visit to Moscow in 2008, with armed men in uniform all over the place, randomly stopping people and asking for identification. In November, a federal judge ruled that deployment was illegal and gave Trump until Dec. 11 to appeal. His response, after two West Virginia guard troopers were shot, was to deploy an additional 500 troops.
I still have to visit DC on occasion, but it’s not the same anymore. The sight of armed soldiers patrolling the streets, even if all they’re doing is picking up trash, is no longer a symbol of democracy.
Charles A. Ray spent 20 years in the U.S. Army with two tours in Vietnam. He retired as a senior US diplomat, serving 30 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, with assignments as ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Republic of Zimbabwe, and was the first American consul general in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He also served in senior positions with the Department of Defense and is a member of The Steady State.
Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 360 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.