The latest iteration of the popular Grand Theft Auto computer game will be released this November. As with previous editions, the game will allow players to turn its fictional streets into festivals of unrelenting criminality.
Fortunately, most cities act robustly when idiot drivers bring dangerous video game-type driving onto real-life streets. But the sensible cities do not include Washington.
On April 4, a 10-year-old child was hit and critically injured by an illegal dirt bike driver as he rode down 14th Street, one of Washington’s busiest thoroughfares. The driver did not stop but kept going with a dozen or so friends on ATVs and other dirt bikes. As the Washington Examiner editorialized shortly afterward, the collision “underlines the intolerable level of police tolerance for rampant illegal activity. The police video of the suspect shows a large group of ATV drivers performing highly dangerous stunts.”
There were no arrests nor, it seems, any lessons learned.
Nearly two dozen ATV and dirt bike riders sped down that same street on Saturday night, once again reveling in their disregard for traffic lights and road safety laws. The drivers performed wheelies and other tricks — that’s what these events are for, and every one of them is a deliberate, showy challenge to propriety, safety, law, and order. In the latest incident, as in earlier ones, the drivers and riders displayed reckless disregard for other drivers and nearby pedestrians. They screamed past police cars without a care in the world, for they knew the law would not be enforced. District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb and the Metropolitan Police Department have failed miserably to confront this criminality.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has brought charges against a small number of illegal driving offenders, but it has no authority to prosecute speeding or reckless driving absent a police pursuit or other offenses, such as illegal gun ownership. It was only a wider array of alleged offenses that allowed the U.S. Attorney’s Office to bring charges against ATV and dirt bike drivers for last weekend’s incident. They appear to have committed other crimes over which the federal government has authority.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office could nevertheless pursue the offenders more energetically, for example, with racketeering cases focused on the broader criminal activity in which some illegal drivers are known to engage. Using personnel assigned to city patrols by the Trump administration, federal law enforcement could pursue drivers who flee when D.C. police officers attempt to stop them. U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Tim Lauer told the Washington Examiner, “ATVs tearing through D.C. streets pose a serious danger to riders, drivers, and pedestrians, especially since these vehicles weren’t designed for public roads. This office will always charge the most serious applicable offense and will continue to seek accountability for riders who endanger our community.”
But primary responsibility rests with Schwalb.
The district’s attorney general is notorious for his tolerance of rampant juvenile crime. He focuses not on crime, which is his job, but rather on civil suits against corporations. He likes headlines that depict him as a warrior for working people. But like so many others on the left wing of politics, he does not realize, or refuses to acknowledge, that working people are the victims, not the perpetrators, of such crimes. When it comes to wresting back control of district streets, Schwalb is nowhere to be found. His office praises itself for filing dozens of lawsuits, but the district has nearly $1 billion in outstanding traffic fines. Schwalb shifts blame for illegal drivers onto the police. He insists charges are brought where arrests are made. A spokesperson for his office told the Washington Examiner, “I’d recommend reaching out to MPD for information about their traffic enforcement activity and priorities.”
The common police viewpoint is that Schwalb does not provide legal cover for aggressive enforcement action. This does not excuse police inaction, however. While they point to occasional arrests and vehicle seizures, the scale of illegal ATV and dirt bike driving in the district shows that the police don’t take it seriously enough. That is partly the fault of Schwalb and the left-wing Council of the District of Columbia’s extreme restrictions on police freedom to pursue suspects. Still, local police are allowed to pursue vehicles when there is a serious threat of injury to civilians. That is obviously the case when an ATV driver is performing high-speed wheelies next to dozens of pedestrians. The police could also pursue more intelligence-driven or undercover investigations.
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One weak excuse for not enforcing the laws is that these criminals commit their crimes for reasons of black pride. This both mistakes arrogance for pride and shows disdain for public safety. It is also racist. As we noted in April, “Just as cockfighting does not define the Hispanic community and white supremacist militias do not define the white community, illegal driving does not define the black community. To suggest otherwise is itself a form of racial stereotyping.”
The law should be enforced. If city officials won’t do it, President Donald Trump should use his authority over the federal district to take action.
The Metropolitan Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.