House Speaker hopeful Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) told the cold-hard truth about the reason for the rise of violent crime across Democrat-run Washington, D.C., in the consequential aftermath of nationwide George Floyd-era Black Lives Matter uprisings.
Delivering his opening statement during Thursday's hearing on "Victims of Violent Crime in the District of Columbia" held by the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, which examined "the lack of prosecutions and prosecutorial accountability," the House Judiciary Committee chairman pointed to the Defund the Police movement and soft-on-crime DAs.
"Crime is out of control and everybody knows it. More importantly, everybody knows why: When you defund the police and you have prosecutors who go soft on crime, you get more crime. This doesn't take a genius to figure this out," Jordan declared.
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Noting that it's an issue afflicting other liberal jurisdictions, Jordan said: "We've done field hearings in New York—field hearings in Chicago. Everybody tells us the same thing. And frankly, when you disparage the good men and women who put on the uniform—risk their lives every day in our streets—you also get a shortage of police officers and more crime. Never forget: Bad guys aren't stupid; they're just bad. If they know there are less police on the street to stop them and they're not going to get prosecuted if they do get caught, they do bad things. That's what we all got to understand. This is as basic as it gets..."
"We have to begin to say to our law enforcement, 'Thank you for doing a tough job.' That's what's at stake here."
Of the witnesses who appeared to testify before the House subcommittee:
- Gaynor Jablonski, a D.C. business owner attacked on June 29, 2023, inside of his business in front of his 4-year-old son
- Charles Stimson, crime control, national security, homeland security, and drug policy expert at the Heritage Foundation and deputy director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies (testimony)
- Mitchell Sobolevsky, victim of a robbery at gunpoint in D.C. on Dec. 16, 2020 (testimony)
- Greg Pemberton, Metropolitan Police Department detective and chairman of the D.C. Police Union (testimony)
- Lindsey Appiah, deputy mayor for Public Safety and Justice (testimony)
- Myisha Richards, firefighter paramedic at the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department (testimony)
Pemberton spoke on how anti-police legislation, which he said is "designed to hamper and hamstring police officers and make it absolutely difficult to do their jobs," leads to an understaffed force and low officer morale, among an array of "wide-reaching" effects on the D.C. ecosystem. In addition, officers are exposed to the liabilities of administrative, civil, and criminal penalties, even if they're performing their duties properly, responsibly, and constitutionally. As a result, officers are leaving the agency in droves.
Since he took office as head of the D.C. Police Union in April 2020, membership reports showed there were 3,626 members of the rank-and-file, which is all officers, detectives, and sergeants. An Oct. 5, 2023, membership report states that they're down to 3,021: a net loss of 605 union members. Since the beginning of 2020, the MPD has lost 1,329 officers, more than one-third of the department. 501 of the departures, nearly 40%, were resignations: employees who "just walked away" from a career with MPD.
Consequently, the "onerous provisions" have "a chilling effect" on those who do stay to continue policing the nation's capital.
"There's a second-guessing as to whether or not they want to engage in the positive, proactive policing that they used to engage in that was so effective at keeping these crime rates low," Pemberton said of the police practice of deterring criminal activity.
Surprise to absolutely no one.
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) October 12, 2023
Anti-police legislation leads to:
-Declining staff levels
-Low officer morale
-Reduction in proactive policing@RepKiley pic.twitter.com/KGa1zxEHXp
Jablonski, an owner of a pub on Capitol Hill's Barracks Row strip, was beaten before his child by an armed DoorDash delivery driver inside his own restaurant. "There was a loaded 9mm [...] that was pointed at my son. Not only was it loaded, there was one in the chamber. When I knocked it out of his pants, luckily it didn't go off 'cause it could have killed someone," Jablonski recalled.
"The DA told me that they had to take into account their resources [...] and that they would plead this down to attempted assault with a dangerous weapon and illegal possession of a firearm," Jablonski said. In response, the father questioned why the district attorney's office didn't take into account the endangerment of a minor. Then, he was told D.C. doesn't have a law that applies.
At the sentencing hearing, Jablonski read aloud a victim impact statement, which he felt, "without a doubt in my mind, if I didn't do that—his attorney was asking for divergence—he probably would have been released." Still, he only got eight months in jail.
"I'm left explaining to my five-year-old why I had to fight this man. And, my five-year-old tells me when I drop him off at school every day to be safe..." Jablonski stated. "Now that I've been through this whole process from start to finish, you could enact whatever law you want. You can have a thousand new gun laws. You could have a thousand new police officers. You could throw millions at this DA's office. If nobody's going to do their jobs and prosecute and hold people accountable, what's the point?"
"Out of this entire situation, I now have bad publicity for my own business, because people now are worried that there's somebody on the street walking around with a gun 'cause this was 2:30 in the afternoon. People are now telling me, 'Well, I'm hesitating about ordering from DoorDash,' which [...] ultimately hurts the small businesses that support sales through DoorDash."
Gaynor Jablonski was assaulted in front of his 4-year-old son at his business in D.C.
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) October 12, 2023
Listen to his attempt at seeking justice with the DA office. pic.twitter.com/P6mWnbDEcK
Sobolevsky recounted his harrowing experience when he "made a series of mistakes that almost cost me my life."
"Some say it is 'victim-blaming,' but the reality is that crime exists, and if you are not careful in violent cities like D.C., you may end up just another statistic," Sobolevsky stated. A short walk away from the White House, Sobolevsky was heading to get groceries one night when an armed thug held him at gunpoint with a pistol aimed at his face and pressed against his forehead.
"All I could hear is, 'You're gonna die tonight,' and that my mom would have to come down to D.C. to identify my body on some cold street in Washington," Sobolevsky testified. "I remember looking into his eyes and seeing no life, no thought, no empathy, just evil. During the entire interaction, where he demanded property after property from me, his finger laid on the trigger while the pistol pointed directly at my head [...] I took cover behind a parked car and called exactly who you want to respond in that situation: the police. Within minutes, squad cars lined 10th and N Street. I'll never forget seeing the siren lights come, thinking, 'Thank God for the police.' A young female officer responded immediately and I knew I was safe and that my life was spared."
After the perpetrator went to trial, Sobolevsky wrote a victim impact statement and pleaded with the judge to not hand down a lenient sentence, urging that the man, a career criminal whose rap sheet includes robbing five victims and two businesses, would go on to commit worse crimes. The judge proceeded to give the offender 24 months and a suspended year of his sentence.
"That's right. One year for multiple armed robberies. Within weeks of my criminal's release, he would go on to rob two more people at gunpoint. I would find out only after reading the weekly D.C. arrests..." Sobolevsky testified. "I implore the subcommittee to understand that policing, prosecuting, and incarceration work. Violent crimes should not be dealt with lightly."
"How many more stories do we have to read about [that are] entirely preventable tragedies?" Sobolevsky questioned.
Mitchell Sobolevsky details the harrowing assault he faced and the lenient sentencing his assailant recieved as a result of D.C's soft on crime policies. pic.twitter.com/Sgc1vSS2NK
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) October 12, 2023
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