The Government Sent ’20 Police Officers’ With Riot Gear To Rearrest D.C. Sandwich Thrower, Says Attorney

By now there’s a strong chance you’ve heard about a man in Washington, D.C., who stands accused of what is, at the moment, arguably the most highly-publicized crime in the city.

On Sunday, Sean Dunn—who, at the time, was an employee for the Justice Department—threw a Subway sandwich at a cop and was subsequently charged with felony assault of a federal law enforcement officer. His arrest comes as 500 federal agents and 800 National Guard troops have been infused into the district after President Donald Trump took federal control of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

But the sandwich story—which already feels like it could’ve played out on Veep—took another turn Wednesday when the federal government sent “20 police officers to [Dunn’s] home” to rearrest him on a federal warrant, according to his attorney Sabrina Shroff. A video released by the White House corroborates that account, with the clip showing a large federal law enforcement presence, complete with riot gear, arriving at Dunn’s apartment complex and leading him out in handcuffs.

There are a couple of takeaways here. One: People still go to Subway. Did not know that. Two: The government’s disproportionate response to this offense epitomizes why Trump’s plan appears to be, at least for now, more political theater than a real solutions-oriented approach.

Some of this debate has focused on whether or not crime is actually a problem in D.C. It is, but the picture is more complicated than many would like to admit. While some have been quick to furnish violent crime statistics that are at a 30-year low, it is difficult to trust those numbers in the context of an investigation alleging the MPD misclassified various crimes to make the city appear safer than it is. A review of homicides—a crime that can’t easily be misclassified—is more instructive: In 2024, D.C. reported 187, down from 274 in 2023. (This year, the city has reported 101 homicides thus far, down from 113 during the same period last year.) It’s trending in the right direction.

But one murder is still one too many, and some neighborhoods—primarily Wards 7 and 8 across the Anacostia River—disproportionately struggle to get crime under control. Police clearance rates, meanwhile, are abysmal: Law enforcement in 2024 made an arrest in just 60 percent of murder cases and 31 percent of non-fatal shootings. In other words, if you kill or shoot someone, there’s a really good chance you’ll get away with it. (That problem, however, is a national one.)

Put differently, there’s work to be done. Crime is a serious problem. And serious problems demand serious solutions: where resources are targeted and used effectively to deter—and solve—crimes that violently infringe on the rights of others. It is not serious, then, to use resources to patrol Georgetown, one of the safest neighborhoods in D.C., or the National Mall, where crime is a rarity, while the highest-crime neighborhoods have reportedly not yet seen an increased law enforcement presence. Or to send nearly two-dozen government agents to rearrest someone accused of throwing a sandwich, instead of just letting him turn himself in for his appearance in federal court.

Permitting Dunn to do that would have conserved resources, perhaps allowing law enforcement to do something more useful. It would have deprived Trump of a public relations opportunity, however, as seen with the camera crew the government brought to the arrest. The White House wanted to remind people that they mean business. Ironically, they did the opposite.

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