On the eve of America’s 250th birthday celebration, a specter is haunting the National Mall.
The White House is planning to light up the sky with what it says will be “the largest pyrotechnics display in the history of the world,” as well as a program of musical performances to honor America’s service members.
Before that glorious spectacle, the president should command the National Park Service to impose order on the lawlessness unfolding outside his window. Washingtonian reports on a band of food truck pirates, “organized crime operating in plain sight,” operating with impunity on the National Mall. They reportedly make up prices willy-nilly; don’t pay taxes; rack up tickets and fines; and threaten their law-abiding competitors. They have “commandeered Constitution Avenue.”
With 100 degree days approaching, many of these trucks, parked bumper to bumper, are roving fire hazards, their drivers carelessly splashing canola oil and gasoline on the sidewalk while swapping propane tanks with no regard for the law. In 2024, two people were critically injured when a food truck burst into flames on the Mall. And they’re disgusting. Guided by the proprietor of the longtime D.C. food truck operator D.C. Slices, Zack Graybill of Washingtonian spotted a truck operating with the generator turned off. “The food isn’t being refrigerated,” he told the magazine. “That’s fucked up. That’s gross.”
A local, licensed D.C. truck operator told Washingtonian she now tries to avoid the National Mall because the pirates “have machetes, knives.” Take one guess what language these food truck fanatics were speaking. This isn’t the American entrepreneurial spirit at work. No, “Many of the vehicles also have the same Arabic phrase above their passenger doors, translating to ‘In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful’”—and they pay “watchers” to look out for cops.
This is no way to run one of America’s crown jewels, and there is, in fact, somebody who can do something about it. While D.C. has authority over the streets, the National Park Service, operated by the Department of the Interior, has authority over the sidewalks and the National Mall. The agency has the authority to tow the trucks, arrest their proprietors, and track down the owners, a cabal of three or four people.
President Trump had enormous success unleashing the National Guard in Washington, D.C., last summer, when he bemoaned the fact that the city had been “overrun by violent criminals” and pledged to “take our capital back.” Mr. President, it’s time to take out the trash.
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