Trump’s DC takeover harkens back to a dark incident 33 years ago – when crime was far worse

A violent event in 1992 prompted a response - not from the president, but Congress - with similarly dystopian language

Donald Trump's takeover of Washington DC's police department and decision to deploy the national guard was sparked by the assault of a former Doge staffer who nicknamed himself Big Balls". Thirty-three years ago, a fatal attack on a congressional staffer also provoked an effort by the federal government to impose law and order on the nation's capital - but in that case, it came from Capitol Hill.

On Monday, Trump said he was taking a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor and worse. This is liberation day in DC and we're going to take our capital back."

Frederic J Frommer, a writer and sports and politics historian, has written for the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Atlantic, History.com and other national publications