In mid-September, U.S. Rep. Max Miller of Bay Village published an op-ed in The Washington Times entitled “Bring the National Guard to Cleveland.” It was subtitled, “Americans deserve to live without fear.” Miller offered a grim view of violent crime in Cleveland, arguing that, “My constituents in the suburbs are afraid to go into the city” — a viewpoint that prompted pushback from some of Miller’s constituents in the suburbs.
Still, not everyone in Cleveland sees a National Guard deployment as meritless in a city with a police-staffing problem and plenty of gun violence. Ward 5 Cleveland City Councilman Richard A. Starr has said he’d welcome the National Guard if it could help reduce violence in the neighborhoods he represents where crime guns are easily acquired and shoot-outs common, especially among young people.
The counter to such thinking is that National Guard soldiers aren’t necessarily trained (or intended) for urban policing — even though Gov. Mike DeWine has said the 150 Ohio National Guard he sent to Washington, D.C., were all military police. DeWine has argued there are better ways to address crime in Ohio cities. And Cleveland in 2023 formed an anti-crime partnership with the state that resulted last Wednesday, DeWine’s office said, in “16 felony arrests, including a man facing six felony charges in connection to an incident earlier this month.”…