Dem Rep. Garamendi: 'D.C. Is a Safe City' 'Certain Parts' 'Are No-Go Places'

On Wednesday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) stated that “Washington, D.C. is a safe city. There are certain parts of Washington, D.C. that are no-go places. And, in those particular places, apparently, the National Guard was not deployed in those places.”

Garamendi said, “I think Washington, D.C. is a safe city. There are certain parts of Washington, D.C. that are no-go places. And, in those particular places, apparently, the National Guard was not deployed in those places. But, for most of the city, northwest, southeast, southwest, and even parts of the northwest are very safe. And the city is not a city in which there is a significant uptick in crime, of all kinds.”

He continued, “The bottom line is, if you want to have safe cities, then you’re going to have to make sure that the police in those cities — and Washington, D.C. has more than, I think, four police departments, a couple of them are federal and two of them are within the city — the bottom line of it is, those police departments need to be well-trained, they need to be fully staffed, and various support and information that they need to conduct their operations has to be forthcoming. Unfortunately, as a result of the budgets that have been passed, the big, ugly bill, support for local police departments has been cut by this administration. I think that’s the wrong way to go. The right way to go is to support those police departments on how to do proper hiring and training and the like.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett