The two and a half weeks since President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Washington, DC, police department have mixed the disturbing and the comical. Combined with the spectacle of the National Guard picking up trash, there’s been a lot of law enforcement activity aimed at unauthorized immigrants. But many residents, though annoyed at Trump’s move, are going on with their lives as usual.

Indeed, what most disquiets me about the Trump administration’s actions here isn’t really what’s happening now — it’s what might happen a few years down the road if the administration keeps going down the path of centralizing law enforcement authority.

And, if recent news developments are any indication, they very much intend to go further down this path.

For instance: NBC News reported last week that FBI director Kash Patel was changing the FBI’s mission to be more focused on violent crime, instead of the complex investigations that have long been its main focus. “They are effectively making the FBI a national police force,” an anonymous senior agent said.

“National police force” is a significant phrase. It’s something we don’t really have in the United States. Certain federal agencies, like the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the US........

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