By now you may have seen that my colleague from an adjacent district in the suburbs continues to call for the National Guard to be deployed to Cleveland. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t waste time on a sideshow. But as I was once told: circus tricks look harmless until you hand the torches to someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing.
As Cleveland's representative in the House, I wanted to write to you here because it is Clevelanders like us who would live with the consequences.
The safety of our Cleveland community is one of my top priorities. That’s why it’s so frustrating, and frankly insulting, to see unserious proposals like this one thoughtlessly hurled around as if our city is a political chessboard. Deploying the National Guard to Cleveland is unnecessary, wasteful, and counterproductive. It wouldn’t make us safer. It would undermine trust, divert resources, and play politics with people’s lives.
How do I know? Because I also spend a lot of time in Washington, D.C., where residents are still living with the fallout from President Trump’s reckless deployment of the National Guard against the wishes of local leaders.
That episode showed just how misguided this approach is: it wasted taxpayer dollars—up to $1 million every single day — while troops raked leaves and patrolled tourist sites. It left communities feeling less safe, not more. And it threatened to damage morale, hurt recruitment, and politicize a proud institution.
Cleveland doesn’t need that kind of political theater. Here’s the truth: crime in Cleveland is coming down. We’re not done — even one crime is too many — but progress is real. To keep building on it, we should strengthen local law enforcement, not sideline them. We should expand violence prevention programs, not cut them. We should be getting guns out of criminals’ hands, not turning our city into a stage for political stunts.
If someone were serious about public safety, they would start by listening to local leaders and strengthening federal–local partnerships. Mayor Justin Bibb’s Raising Investment in Safety for Everyone (RISE) Initiative is a model of what real leadership looks like: using strategic investments, partnerships, enforcement, and technology to combat crime and build trust. But like any local effort, it needs reinforcement. The federal government’s role isn’t to parachute in troops; it’s to provide more resources and strengthen our laws.
That’s exactly what I’ve fought for. I voted for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which strengthened background checks and delivered $2 million in crime prevention funding to Cuyahoga County. I secured federal resources to train law enforcement and combat human trafficking. I cosponsored bills for universal background checks and to ban assault weapons. And for two years, I’ve requested $1.4 million in direct federal funding for Cleveland Police — funding Republicans in Congress are still blocking.
Contrast that with the empty call to “send in the Guard.” Maybe my colleague who doesn’t live or represent the city thinks lecturing Cleveland on safety will distract from the fact that 22,000 of his own constituents are set to lose health care because he voted to gut Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.
Regardless, here’s what I do know: I was born and raised in Cleveland. I know our city. I know our people. And I know that safety comes from hard work, real resources, community trust, and serious solutions.
You deserve better. You deserve a partner who will bring real solutions to the table and fight every day to keep you safe. That’s what I’ve worked to do ever since I took office, and it’s what I’ll keep doing.
Shontel M. Brown
Member of Congress