“During the checkpoint, 344 vehicles passed through, 28 were stopped, 38 [Notice of Infractions] were issued, and MPD made one arrest for No Permit and Counterfeit Tags,” the MPD spokesperson said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “Since 2023, the Metropolitan Police Department has conducted weekly traffic safety compliance checkpoints. These checkpoints are an education and enforcement tool used to encourage safe driving and hold violators accountable.”

Kenneth, a 28-year-old resident of the U Street Corridor who lives close to Wednesday’s checkpoint, ran into a nearby drugstore to purchase materials to make a sign directing traffic away from it once he saw the officers stopping drivers.

“This is a dark period for our city,” Kenneth said. “Obviously, we don’t want federal control over our police department. I just knew that during these times, you’ve got to do your part. So I was just trying to redirect traffic so people were not stopped for something that they were not expecting. I’ve never seen this in my five-plus years of living in D.C.”

The display of law enforcement follows President Donald Trump’s declaration of a “crime emergency” in Washington on Monday. He federalized the MPD and mobilized the District of Columbia National Guard for at least the next 30 days. Trump’s executive order came despite recent MPD crime statistics showing violent crime down 26% from last year.

As of 9 p.m. on Wednesday, federal and local law enforcement officers had arrested over 100 people as part of the officer influx in the capital, according to the White House. The Trump administration has activated several federal partners in the region this week, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Customs and Border Protection, and the Park Police.

In the early hours of Wednesday evening, federal officers gathered at the Park Police law enforcement facility in Anacostia before they set out into other areas of the district.

Kenneth said he found the 14th Street checkpoint to be “a huge drain on local resources when there’s actually areas of our city that might need assistance.”

“Between V and W on 14th street, you’re not going to find anything,” Kenneth said.

Another protester in her mid-20s, Meera, also helped direct traffic away from the block as soon as she saw the checkpoint assembling from her nearby apartment complex. She said she felt empowered by the neighborhood’s resistance but also saddened to see federal officers in her own neighborhood.

“You have some separation if it’s across town, obviously, you feel it deeply, but it’s just really hard to see them pulling people away in our area,” Meera said. “Especially as this area was so rapidly gentrified within the past 10 years. Them pulling people here feels much more horrible.”

Meera also noted how the Trump administration’s rhetoric toward the district’s homeless population ties into the law enforcement influx, as the administration has threatened fines or jail time for homeless people who refuse shelter or treatment.

“These people that are already systematically so oppressed, they’re already shot in the foot and now they’re kicking them while they’re down,” Meera said.

Trump posted images of several homeless encampments in the district on Truth Social Sunday, writing, “The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt outlined the administration’s plans for the district’s homeless population in a Tuesday press conference discussing the federalization of the MPD.

“Homeless individuals will be given the option to leave their encampment to be taken to a homeless shelter to be offered addiction or mental health services,” Leavitt said. “And if they refuse, they will be susceptible to fines or to jail time.”

The Washington Examiner spoke with several homeless people living in Washington’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood about the administration’s plans to crack down on homeless encampments.

Meghann Abraham, 34, said she just completed her associate’s degree in homeland security at the College of Southern Maryland and plans to pursue her bachelor’s degree soon. In the meantime, she is applying to jobs while living in her tent in Foggy Bottom, as she cannot afford rent in the district. She said the MPD served her an eviction notice last week, saying she needs to remove her property from the area. This is the second eviction notice she has received this year — the first was from outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in March.

“The Metropolitan Police Department came by with a little sticker that said if your property is still here on this date at this time — for us it’s the 29th of August at 10 a.m. — you have to be out or they will throw it out,” Abraham said. “At Martin Luther King Library, they came with a dumpster truck and asked, ‘Does anyone know whose this is? Do you know how to contact them?’ I will say, they were trying to get in touch with people.”

Abraham said she has a few options for where to move her belongings. She also noted the feeling of hurt she gets when passers-by in the area act like she doesn’t belong. She said a lot of people who walk past her in the district gawk and stare, giving her smug looks. She noted a driver the other day yelled, “Where’s your house at?” when driving past her.

“When you get treated the same way over and over again, you do start to internalize it,” Abraham said. “It’s not that I don’t know who I am. It’s not that I don’t know I just got an associate degree. It’s not that I don’t know I have a good work ethic, and when I go to work, I show up 10 minutes early. I know my work ethic, I know my worth. But when everyone else starts looking at you that way, you actually do start to internalize it. It takes a lot to swallow it and keep your head forward.”

Abraham’s friend and fellow homeless person, Mr. Spann, 37, also noted what he sees as a misconception that all homeless people are not hard-working.

“I got a job, but I just don’t have enough money to get my own place,” Mr. Spann said.

Mr. Spann said he secured his job as a custodian at a local hospital through a temporary employment agency. He addressed his thoughts on the Trump administration’s push to clean up homeless encampments throughout the district as part of its effort to combat crime. He and Abraham have received paper warnings from various advocacy groups detailing the federal law enforcement presence and the Trump administration’s rhetoric toward homeless people.

“Where are we supposed to go?” Mr. Spann said. “What are we supposed to do? Are you going to lock them up? What charge do you have?”

Abraham said she does not like staying in homeless shelters because they can “feel like prison.”

“I’ve been in shelters before, I don’t like them,” she said. “It’s eat when we say you can eat, shower when we say you can shower. From this hour to this hour, just be locked in the room with whatever random person off the street that we decide you get to live with.”

TRUMP CLAIMS DC IS UNDER FEDERAL CONTROL ‘WHERE IT BELONGS’

Abraham pointed to her tent and said, “This is easier.”

DHS did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment on the 14th Street checkpoint.