We’ll always have Virginia
Kaylee McGhee White
Just two weeks into the new year, and already crime in Washington, D.C., is rising rapidly. Just in the first 12 days of 2023, there have been 189 car thefts in the district. That’s an 89% increase from this time last year. Homicides are up by 40%, and shootings are becoming a regular occurrence. Just last week, two children were shot while getting off a Metrobus.
You’d think local officials would look at these numbers and realize they have a crisis on their hands requiring immediate, firm action. But you’d be mistaken. The Council of the District of Columbia has no interest in punishing the criminals responsible for Washington’s crime wave. In fact, its members are doing everything they can to lighten criminal punishments, giving them even more of an incentive to wreak havoc in the district.
A bill before the D.C. Council, called the Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022, would overhaul the district’s criminal code in a number of ways. It would eliminate most mandatory minimum sentences, allow for jury trials in most misdemeanor cases, and reduce the maximum penalties for serious crimes, including burglaries and homicides.
The bill is so extreme that Washington’s liberal mayor, Muriel Bowser, vetoed it. Washington’s city administrator and police chief have also spoken out against it.
But the council won’t see reason. Indeed, its members have traded whatever common sense they had left for a progressive badge of honor, ignoring legitimate concerns about the city’s crime rates and waxing poetic about systemic injustice and the need for “equity.” The bill itself includes a 42-page “racial equity impact assessment.”
“Today, [Councilman Charles Allen] and I are moving to override the Mayor’s veto of the Revised Criminal Code Act,” Councilwoman Brooke Pinto tweeted last week. “The veto threatens to unravel years of work and thorough study that has culminated in a criminal code that is more just, equitable, & clear — making us all safer.”
If the district council moves forward with this bill, it shouldn’t be surprised when the district’s residents (and their tax dollars) start moving to safer places such as Virginia, where their rights and concerns will be taken more seriously.