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When President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he was taking over Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department and sending in National Guard troops, those of us who live in D.C. immediately understood how frightening things were about to get.

By law—because D.C. lacks statehood—the president can take over MPD for 30 days; we don’t know how long this National Guard deployment will run. This means D.C.’s 700,000 residents will live the next month under a police force that has been openly encouraged by the president to commit acts of brutality against civilians and that is simply much more poorly run. We will also have to deal with an “enhanced presence” of federal security agencies throughout the city. We don’t yet know exactly what shape Trump’s MPD takeover will take, but it’s entirely possible that people will die as a result of these actions.

Many are likely wondering how President Trump can take control of D.C.’s police force. A short way to describe a long history of oppression is this: Washington, D.C., has no voting representation in Congress, despite the fact that our population is greater than that of Vermont or Wyoming, and that D.C. residents pay more federal taxes per capita than any state. Congress can overturn or change our local laws before they take effect and can abolish our local government any time it wants to. Until D.C. becomes a state, the federal government will continue to have the final say over D.C.’s local affairs.

The District does have an elected local government with limited power to govern the city, and locally elected officials who fight for our sovereignty. For example, voters in D.C. elect a nonvoting U.S. representative and two nonvoting U.S. senators. These “shadow” senators and the representative work to achieve D.C. statehood, prevent........

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