WASHINGTON ‒ Civil rights leaders blasted PresidentDonald Trump'smove to take over policing of the nation's capital,calling it a "federal coup" and a power grab rooted in his longstanding clashes with leaders of a city with a large Black population. "There's a hostility against African Americans that has not been discussed," said Gloria Browne-Marshall, a professor of Constitutional Law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "We're talking about a city that has a great deal of Black power." On Aug. 11, Trump announced he woulddeploy 800 members of the National Guardto Washington, D.C., calling the city's crime and homeless situation a "tragic emergency." Trump has long complained about what he called rising crime in the city, unsightly homeless encampments, and unchecked protests. He has repeatedly threatened to take over the city, which isgoverned by a council and a mayor, but overseen by Congress. "We need to clean up our once beautiful Capital City, and make it beautiful again," Trump wrote in apost earlier this year."We will be TOUGH ON CRIME, like never before. I will work with the Mayor on this and, if it does not happen, will have no choice but to do it myself." Civil rights activists called it another unprecedented overreach tostrip away civil rights protections, particularly in a city that symbolizes democracy. Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, said the "brave men and women" of the National Guard are part of the country's defense against domestic emergencies. "There's no emergency in D.C., so why would he deploy the National Guard?" Johnson said in a statement. "D.C. has the right to govern itself. It doesn't need this federal coup." The White House pushed back against such accusations. "This is why Democrats continue to be so unpopular among everyday Americans, they think the president of the United States cracking down on crime in our nation's capital is a bad thing," Taylor Rogers, White House assistant press secretary, said in an email. "President Trumpis making Washington, D.C., safer for all Americans by stopping the vicious crime that has been plaguing the city." The Trump administration and Republican congressional leaders have clashed before with D.C. leaders, including during the 2020 George Floyd protests when Trump, during his first term, called in outside law enforcement to push back protesters. Conflicts have continued during Trump's second term when Republican congressmen earlier this year threatened to withhold federal funding if Mayor Muriel Bowser didn't remove letters spelling "Black Lives Matter" on a street leading to the White House. The words were removed. In February, Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennesseeintroduced The Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident(BOWSER) Act, which would repeal theDistrict of Columbia Home Rule Act. In March,Trump signed an executive ordertitled "Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful" that sets up a task force of federal officials to clean up the city. Some civil rights leaders called the takeover an effort by Trump todistract from the Epstein scandal. "Trump is simply trying to feed them red meat in hopes they'll be full after he broke one of his biggest campaign promises to them," Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, said in a statement. "In the process, the people of Washington, D.C. ‒ especially those living on the streets, who need the most care ‒ will suffer, alongside the core principles of our Democracy." Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat from Maryland, called Trump's move a "drastic executive overreach." "The city of Washington, D.C., belongs to the great people of Washington, D.C., not the occupant of the White House," said Alsobrooks. "If he actually cared about the well-being of the people of Washington, he wouldn't have blocked D.C. from spending its OWN money in the way it saw fit." Trump, GOP vow to fix DC:Residents would prefer to run their city themselves. The District of Columbia was once dubbed "Chocolate City" because it had a majority Black population. Demographics have shifted in recent years. The Black population is now just over 40% and the White population is just below that,according to the U.S. Census. The city has a long history of electing Black leaders, many of whom came up through the Civil Rights Movement. Bowser is African American, as are several members of the City Council and the police chief. "President Trump is advancing a fictional story of a city that is overwhelmingly Black … beset by crime to justify the deployment of National Guard resources and to advance lawless policing," Todd A. Cox, associate director-counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said in a statement. "But the truth is that crime in D.C. has reached historic lows." Trump has warned that heplans to targetother cities run by Democratic mayors, including Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Other cities need to have a plan for this "abuse of power that's taking place by the White House," said Browne-Marshall, author of "A Protest History of the United States." Unlike Washington, she said, she wonders if other cities are preparing "as opposed to waiting until they become the next city to be rolled over by the federal government and then feel shock and awe and helplessness." This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Donald Trump blasted by civil rights leaders for 'federal coup' in DC