This week in SojoMail, Adam Russell Taylor shares what it's been like to be in Washington, D.C., these past few weeks and how the increased presence of troops in the city has impacted many throughout the city. Last week, I returned from vacation to find more than 2,100 National Guard troops in my city, our nation’s capital, deployed from the district and six other states at a cost estimated to be upwards of $1 million a day. As I walked from Union Station to our nearby offices, I was filled with righteous anger—not at the National Guard troops who were milling around, simply following orders, but toward the Trump administration’s wasteful, political stunt of misusing emergency powers granted to the president with dire consequences. It’s not just the optics of Humvees parked outside Union Station or soldiers in desert camouflage patrolling the National Mall; an ever-present sense of menace has settled over many parts of the city, especially for many Black and brown people and others whose identities or circumstances make them vulnerable to over-policing. It’s unmarked cars directly outside bilingual childcare centers, and nannies asking to be escorted to and from their jobs. It’s also the presence of vested, armed, and often masked federal agents on our streets—all too often, we see them because they are taking a person of color into custody. It’s hearing that a former colleague couldn’t worship at their church because ICE was parked outside the sanctuary doors. It means having to go through militarized checkpoints in some of D.C.’s most popular areas for nightlife, such as U Street, and in neighborhoods with a high concentration of Latinos and immigrants, such as Columbia Heights. | 
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