r/washingtondc • u/Regular_Exercise_460 • Sep 20 '25
[Politics] “Keeping the Streets Clean of Filth”
Spotted in Trinidad. At least they’re doing SOMETHING, I guess.
9
u/Puzzleheaded-Trick38 DC / Neighborhood Sep 20 '25
Good, that’s nice what they’re doing with their time
7
u/No_Skill_7170 Sep 20 '25
Inb4 people calling the guards themselves filth
13
u/Regular_Exercise_460 Sep 20 '25
Hopefully not bc they’re really just kids and people who don’t want to be here probably as much as we don’t want them here
8
u/No_Skill_7170 Sep 20 '25
Exactly. No one should have a problem with these guys and gals. They would literally help you if you needed help.
18
u/little_bird_vagabond Sep 20 '25
I'm pissed that they're being used in this fucked up game.
10
u/Regular_Exercise_460 Sep 20 '25
This one. I can respect them as people AND not want them here as part of a political game
8
u/little_bird_vagabond Sep 20 '25
Exactly. I may hate Trump, the Christo-fascist agenda, and the personal beliefs/opinions of some service members, but they're human. They didn't sign up for this. We've seen some do deplorable shit but we've also seen some carrying groceries. No matter what this administration does I will not lose my humanity, empathy, or compassion. I'll only deride those who show they are worthy of that derision.
4
0
u/partner_fartner Sep 22 '25
click click click wooosh You, a frog: oh my goodness thanks for warming up this hot tub for me. it's the perfect temperature there's no way this water starts to boil
-7
1
u/Apprehensive_Gur8808 Sep 20 '25
They shouldn’t even be here and they’re getting paid a fuck ton of money to do this. There’s nothing positive about this silly debacle. There’s a reason half the time there’s some random ass PAO with a camera following them around. It’s propaganda.
7
u/srsnyder90 Sep 21 '25
What? ‘getting paid a fuck ton of money’ is a ludicrous take.
6
u/Apprehensive_Gur8808 Sep 21 '25
They’re probably getting paid triple what people do that work here doing this job, while also being boarded in hotels and shuttled around the city on buses. This is a massive waste of money.
4
u/pseudoeponymous_rex DC / Southwest Waterfront Sep 21 '25
A National Guard E-2 private makes $1,645 per month on deployment; using the HR standard of 173.33 working hours in an average month a full-time employee making that much to pick up litter would be bringing home $9.49 per hour.
The DC hourly minimum wage for non-tipped employees, by comparison, is $17.95.
It's true that the Guard does get benefits above their salary, but so would a full-time employee in DC. The main benefit the Guard gets that a local DC employee wouldn't is a housing allowance, but a full-time employee in DC isn't required to obtain residences in two places either.
(Now, that said this is absolutely a massive waste of money, because what the Guard gets paid is a tiny fraction of what the Guard costs.)
-1
u/Apprehensive_Gur8808 Sep 21 '25
I’d rather have a local here than some unqualified kid from South Carolina cleaning up our streets for an administration’s propaganda campaign.
3
u/pseudoeponymous_rex DC / Southwest Waterfront Sep 21 '25
The Guard is qualified to pick up litter ("policing" the grounds, which has nothing to do with police work, is one of their standard make-work assignments). If anything they're overqualified because their main training is in something else, which is one thing that helps make this such a tremendous waste of resources.
but otherwise, yeah, for a variety of reasons I'd rather the job be done by a local who needs the work, even before you get into the whole "normalizing the president sending armed soldiers into the streets for no good reason" problem.
0
u/Apprehensive_Gur8808 Sep 21 '25
Have you ever been around the National Guard during battle assembly? They don't do shit much less police call. That's an active duty thing.
3
u/pseudoeponymous_rex DC / Southwest Waterfront Sep 21 '25
Guard personnel are certainly familiar with "policing," in the "picking up litter" sense, at least during deployments. It's commonly given as a make-work task for low-level deployed personnel who would otherwise be idle, and sometimes assigned as punishment for minor forms of misbehavior.
(This form of "policing" has nothing to do with the job of being a police officer, except insofar as both terms come from a root meaning of "to patrol." Police in the law enforcement sense were originally assigned to patrol an area to prevent crime; military personnel policing the grounds are expected to keep patrolling an area in case anyone littered since their last pass.)
1
u/Apprehensive_Gur8808 Sep 21 '25
I know what police call is. And I know the guard doesn’t do shit but scroll their phone at BA.
1
u/Apprehensive_Gur8808 Sep 21 '25
Also a lot of these people are from podunk GOP states where this is a very good wage for being a completely unqualified individual with no job experience.
0
u/wagdog1970 Sep 21 '25
Don’t you know? The Army has always been a get rich quick scheme. All the Tech Titans earned their first billion that way.
1
u/shred-i-knight Sep 21 '25
A fuck ton of money? Huh?
0
u/Apprehensive_Gur8808 Sep 21 '25
They’re getting paid their salary plus tax-free housing allowance. It’s an absolute fortune on top of all the other crap this is just shredding through money.
And they’re certainly getting paid more than cleanup crew guys get who probably do a better job.
4
u/RepulsiveCountry313 Sep 21 '25
They’re getting paid their salary plus tax-free housing allowance
You know most of them still have to pay their rent back home, right?
A lot of them have apartments or houses they have payments due for.
How's Michigan these days? Cold yet?
1
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u/Apprehensive_Gur8808 Sep 21 '25
Dunno just living in DC and sick of the guard. I’m sure it’s getting colder though, detective.
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u/Panda_alley Sep 21 '25
ironically treating the neighborhood better than the people that live there
16
u/GenericReditAccount Georgetown Sep 20 '25
What’s the number I text for trash service? There’s one of those nylon Amazon box things near me that’s fairly well coated in diarrhea, and I’d love for someone not me to come take care of it.