On September 30, leaders from Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Chicago, Memphis, and Portland held a joint virtual news conference to call for an end to the dangerous, unnecessary, and illegal military occupation in their cities.

WASHINGTON DC — This afternoon Donald Trump issued an Executive Order promoting the death penalty in DC.

In response, Free DC issued the following statement:

On September 26, Free DC and community leaders from TN, MS, LA, OH, and WV demanded troop withdrawal as the Trump Administration and Republican governors continue to extend unnecessary, wasteful National Guard deployment in the nation's capital.

One important thing we can do in this moment is to make our demand for a free DC visible everywhere.

Every night at 7 PM, we call on all DC residents to stop what you are doing, go outside, and bang pots and pans for five minutes. We call on everyone to do this every night for as long as the National Guard, ICE, federal forces and this occupation are in place.

On September 6, more than 10,000 people came together in DC to demand an immediate end to Trump’s occupation of the District.

Trump is laying the groundwork to quell all public dissent to his agenda. If he is successful, it would spell the end of American democracy. We refuse to allow that to happen.