Free DC statement on PEACE DC
Councilmember Brooke Pinto’s PEACE DC bill would expand police power at a dangerous moment
On Friday, Council quietly added vote to agenda for June 17
Washington, DC — On March 24, DC Councilmember Brooke Pinto introduced her “PEACE DC” plan, an omnibus bill that includes more than two dozen different provisions related to policing and prisons in the District of Columbia.
The bill currently includes provisions to make Secure DC’s expansion of pre-trial detention permanent, and establish criminal penalties for protest activity. Nowhere does the bill address one of the most urgent public safety issues facing the District: MPD collaboration with the increasingly dangerous federal administration.
On Friday, June 13, the Council quietly published a legislative meeting agenda showing that PEACE DC would come before the Council for a vote in less than three business days, on Tuesday, June 17. Ahead of that vote, Free DC leaders issued the following statements:
“All over the country right now we’re witnessing police forces dangerously overreaching their power,” said Keya Chatterjee, Executive Director of Free DC. “This is a moment when our leaders should be vigorously defending civil liberties and our right to protest. It’s dystopian to call a bill that expands police power to arrest protestors the ‘Residential Tranquility’ Act. It will make protest in DC more dangerous for everyone and that’s the opposite of what we need to be doing right now.”
“DC’s prosecutor is a Trump appointee and we cannot willingly give that administration open license to detain legally innocent people,” said Emily Cassometus, chair of Free DC’s Local Government Working Group. “PEACE DC’s ‘Pretrial Detention’ provision would allow the U.S. Attorney to keep detaining people without full due process. It just happened to Taya Johnson, whose entire family has lost their housing and stability after she was detained for months pre-trial. On Friday a jury found Taya not guilty on most counts, but her life has been upended. We need to end expanded detention immediately, not make it permanent.”
“The biggest danger to DC right now is ICE agents snatching people off the streets, not protestors, people who don’t pay their bus fare, or people awaiting trial,” said Tanya Golash-Boza, Professor of Sociology at the University of California. “Since March, DC’s local police have demonstrated an emerging willingness to cooperate with this administration and its detention machine. Police collaboration with this administration creates fear, not safety.”
“This attempt to expand power for the police is happening at the same time the Mayor is attempting to also expand the budget for police,” said Nikhil, a Free DC community member. “At a moment when local police across the country are collaborating with ICE and cracking down on protestors, expanding police power is the wrong direction and that’s particularly true here in DC where we already do not have enough legal protections from this administration.”
“Evidence continues to show us that programs which actually make communities safer are things like trained mental health responders, investments in housing and youth programs, diversion, and alternative systems like re-routing 911 to 988,” said Frankie Seabron, Program Manager at Harriet’s Wildest Dreams. “We have been demanding this from our local leaders for years and it is only more important during this period of intensifying attacks nationwide and here in DC.”
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Free DC is a renewed campaign to protect DC Home Rule and win lasting dignity for the people of the District of Columbia. Launched in January 2025, we’re building the power it will take to win DC’s demands for dignity and justice. Learn more and get involved at FreeDCproject.org.