Tipsheet

DC City Council Leader: Look, There Is No 'Crime Crisis' in Our Wonderful City

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  March 31, 2023 12:45 PM

In a very special Twitter thread this week, the chairman of Washington, DC's cartoonishly deranged city council asserted that the deadly crime crisis that exists in reality is actually a figment of critics' collective imagination.  Even more on-brand than his reality-denying head-in-sandism, however, is one of the objections he raised against GOP efforts to highlight the raging and dangerous epidemic in our nation's capital city.  You couldn't create a more fitting caricature if you tried:


Point number one is that there is no "crime crisis" -- complete with scare quotes -- in DC.  Point number two is that Republicans did not invite witnesses to testify about the supposedly non-existent crisis who sufficiently "embody diversity," in his estimation.  Incredible.  The priorities speak for themselves.  An absolutely fanatical obsession with identity politics, fused with an aggressive denial of reality that is resulting in serious physical harm to DC residents, disproportionately people of color.  "Progress" at work, yet again.  

This person also defends the council's "criminal justice reform" law that is so insanely reckless and radical that the city's leftist mayor vetoed it (the council overwhelmingly overrode the veto), the leftist Washington Post editorial board warned against it, and Congressional Democrats felt compelled to undermine their own nakedly political case for DC statehood by interfering with the city's home rule in order to stop the provisions from going into effect.  Mendelson claims that it's good policy -- and why wouldn't he?  Why would he be concerned about the impact of lowering penalties for a host of dangerous crimes?  According to him, the "crime crisis" is made up.  According to facts, not so much:

For the first time since those with the Downtown D.C. Business Improvement District can remember, the group is now looking at possibly hiring off-duty D.C. police officers, special police or other security members, as a means to increase security.  It’s a response to the current crime in the District, which is also in the midst of a D.C. police staffing shortage. Earlier this month, D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee III told reporters the force was down to around 3,200 members, compared to around 3,800 when he started in 2021. The chief claims it may take a decade to get back to previous force numbers. As of Friday, D.C. police stats show while overall violent crime is down about 2% from this time last year, homicides are up 19% and motor vehicle thefts are up around 105% from this same time last year.

Those stats were published days before another explosion of crime in the past week, including this wild (but hardly unusual) scene playing out within a few hours of Mendelson's tweets.  "No crime crisis:"


We also saw a Senate staffer in Rand Paul's office repeatedly stabbed in broad daylight in a popular area of the city over the weekend.  The suspect had been released from behind bars one day prior, having not served his full sentence, despite 20 prior arrests and a previous parole violation.  "No crime crisis:"

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Criminals with long rap sheets being free on the streets to commit new, escalating crimes is commonplace, helping explain why the murder rate is up by double digits (over last year, not even using pre-pandemic relative normalcy as a base line).  Remember this?


It's boom times for criminals in Washington, DC:


I'll leave you with a surreal message from DC's mayor, followed by a reminder that Chicago could be on the brink of electing someone who is aligned with the DC city council's madness: