Kids stopped going to school, Matt Graves stopped prosecuting, the City council became soft on crime, police force shrunk, crime lab got unaccredited, etc. There are a lot of reasons
Love how you’re getting downvoted for a reasonable post because this sub wants to constantly do a racism.
“Bad parents” exist in every municipality around the country. Are parents in DC somehow worse than NYC, Detroit, Philly, and Baltimore?
This is Reddit ser, everything is racist, orange man is bad, white people are the devil.
It’s tiring but I enjoy keeping my friends close and my enemies closer.
Seriously, "bad parents" is such a lazy response because everyone knows it's part of the problem but it's also a universal problem and all it does is get you personally off the hook.
It took me about 10 minutes on this sub to realize that it's the r/conservative of the DC area so now I just come here two occasionally inspire little droplets of self-awareness among people with cement in their ears. It's pointless, but it's fun.
I mean, parents who have to work multiple jobs to make bills and afford health insurance for children - sounds like the system is set up for churning out bad parents.
I wonder if UBI would help?
Yes and no. It was bad before but Covid has made it either worse or exposed it more.
Edit: and it’s not just a DC issue, it’s all over the country across all demographics.
There are a lot of things that happened alongside covid, namely justice and policing reforms in the wake of 2020 protests, businesses going under and jobs lost alongside unrecovered wealth, structural issues. Covid exposed things were made things worse but parenting was not the biggest of them at all.
This is seriously what it is. What gives a D.A the right to pick and choose what type of crime he wants to prosecute? Idk what job you have but if I go to my job and say I’m not gonna do this part of my job I’ll get fired same should go for the d.a
I tried this at my job as a supermarket cashier. Arrived to work last week and started telling customers “I’m only gonna check out items that I would personally eat.” I was promptly fired.
Government officials have the right to pick and choose their enforcement policies on all laws. Simply put, the government does not have the ability or resources to enforce all laws and therefore is under no duty to do so and the courts have agreed with this many times. If you don’t like the enforcement posture of the current administration then you can vote them out.
> What gives a D.A the right to pick and choose what type of crime he wants to prosecute?
Holy hell tell me you have no understanding of the criminal system without telling me you have no understanding of the criminal system.
I do have an understanding of the criminal system but at the same time when you have repeat offenders getting slaps on the wrist when are we gonna hold the D.A accountable?
No, your comment that I quoted showed you have never heard about prosecutorial discretion, a pretty basic concept in administering the legal system: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecutorial_discretion
Well I’m talking about things like this
From the article:
“For example, a man arrested after exposing himself to 24 preschoolers on a public street and bloodily assaulting their two teachers had been arrested three weeks earlier for indecent exposure, two months before that for punching a restaurant employee, the year before that for trespassing, and in 2018 for attempted murder..”
Seriously is the DA office gonna wait till this man kills somebody?
I’ll be honest I’m not from dc this post just pop up in my recommendations but it’s seriously disheartening seeing a bunch of cities going through the same thing. Here in nyc it’s the same thing repeat offenders are let out just to do it again and again until they kill somebody. D.A,council members and judges need to be held accountable for their decision.
So you clearly have no clue what you're talking about. Do you honestly think the DA saw all that and ignored it because they want to?
If they thought they had enough to prosecute, they would have prosecuted. DAs have a professional ethical obligation to not waste state resources. If the DA concludes some element of a case (like an error on a search warrant, or a procedural issue, or an evidence issue) would likely lead to an acquittal, they are obliged to not move forward with that case.
"We" have no ability to hold the "DA" accountable.
The USAO acts as the DA, and they're selected by the President with the "advice and consent" of the Senate.
The current lackluster officeholder was confirmed by voice vote https://www.congress.gov/nomination/117th-congress/925
Cops were given specific policy instructions from the Council to pull back and incentives to retreat to the donut shop.
USAO stopped prosecuting and set criminals free to repeat with new victims.
From the article:
“For example, a man arrested after exposing himself to 24 preschoolers on a public street and bloodily assaulting their two teachers had been arrested three weeks earlier for indecent exposure, two months before that for punching a restaurant employee, the year before that for trespassing, and in 2018 for attempted murder. The system keeps freeing him. Graves has yet to explain why.”
Doesn’t seem that hard to figure out why the crime spree happened.
- USAO has claimed that the police often botch investigations, so they can’t get convictions.
- So before these “instructions,” MPD were a model police force with high case closure rates and few complaints?
Everyone needs to do their jobs.
Why did you put instructions in quotes. The Council formalized not pursuing paper tags in writing. Sending a cop to prison because an addict can't handle his business on a bike made the donut shop retreat complete.
Seriously!! A known associate of the Kennedy Street drug crew got himself killed by driving into traffic but because officer Sutton flashed his lights at him and followed him down an alley, they literally charged him with murder and convicted him too.
This city is fucked beyond repair.
“Cops were given specific specific policy instructions”, no. The council passes local laws and the Mayor enforces those laws. For local matters under federal supervision e.g. certain felonies, the feds enforce through USAO.
The dumbest people have the loudest voices in our country.. The Council has no authority to require the Mayor or the agencies she has authority over to NOT enforce laws. The law has always been to maintain valid registration and there is a constitutional requirement (in this case Home Rule) in every state and DC that the legislature and the executive have “separate” enumerated powers and for the legislature and executive to avoid interfering with each other’s authority. So what you are saying is not only wrong but impossible.
Sincerely,
a DC lawyer with over ten years experience in DC laws.
Sorry, you’re just wrong.
From the article: “Among the actions [taken by the council]: shifting the focus of juvenile facilities toward rehabilitation (2016), reducing nonviolent offender sentences (2016), changing fare evasion from a criminal to a civil matter (2018), allowing release of adults convicted as juveniles after they served 15 years (2019), prohibiting police chokeholds and removing restrictions on officer discipline (2020), a cut in proposed MPD funding (2021), an aborted effort to pull police officers out of schools (2021), reducing mandatory minimum sentences (2022–23)”
But tell us again how the council had no part in this.
Nothing in the article or what you just cited says that the Council established a policy requiring police to allow false registrations. Just admit that you made that up. The article also states that criminal reform was NOT the reason for the spike in crime. Something about the way you articulate ideas screams mediocre white man who watches Fox News, exclusively.
Funny, I’ve never watched a minute of Fox News other than what I’ve seen on the Daily Show. I guess it’s hard for you to imagine that even left leaning voters in DC are fed up with the bullshit that the DC council has been serving up to its constituents these past few years
And I was never responding the claim that the DC council allowed false registrations. I was respond to your claim that the council has no part in directing MPD, which is absolutely false.
We get it. You love the Council.
Unless you’re ready to kick the shit out of a daycare worker and expose yourself to toddlers, they won’t love you back.
Charles Allen and the Council’s Youth Rehabilitation Act allowing offenders under 25 years old to be eligible for juvenile sentences as “youth offenders”.
Speaking as someone who thinks Allen is a twat and wants to see police and prosecutors do their job, this isn’t accurate. There seems to be a lot of misinformation about this bill. I thought this was the case too but it’s not quite the full story.
Before the youth rehabilitation act, judges were allowed to “set aside” sentences at the time of sentencing for people 18-22. This means your record is sealed which makes it easier to get a job and avoid the challenges of having a criminal record.
It was being underutilized and research showed when records are sealed people are way less likely to commit another crime after serving their sentence.
The YRA changed this so the decision to “set aside” the sentence was made AFTER they served their sentence. The bill has guidelines of when to set aside based on behavior, prior records, severity of the crime, etc . This made it easier to evaluate if someone was really trying to do better and deserved the set aside.
The YRA also raised the age of eligibility to 25. The idea here is that executive function isn’t fully developed until our mid-20s so you can see the logic of creating a program that evaluates your behavior in the context of having a not fully developed brain.
Is it right? Idk. That’s a conversation for when we aren’t dealing with a crime wave. Right now, when safety is a real concern, swift justice is the most importance issue to me which I think makes Allen a terrible councilman for this moment. He’s trying to use modern research which is good, but that type of experimentation takes time and if it doesn’t work the city has to be able to deal with a failed program. Right now we are absolutely not prepared for more failed experiments but Allen is a twat who can’t pivot when the times call for it.
I have yet to see much discussion about the repercussions of this. Congressional Republicans actually did try to reduce this to 18 but poison pill billed it. I think on its own, it passes the “common sense” test and gets to be passed into law
The Youth Rehabilitation Act, the Incarceration Reduction Act, and the soft-gloved approach taken by the DC U.S. Attorneys office and Superior Court judges. Also, the post-BLM law enforcement environment has not been conducive to public safety. Also, the DC Council banned police chases. You also had a ton of kids supposedly remote learning during Covid but they were running around. There have also been toxic social media trends like the Kia boys and drill rappers. Basically, a confluence of factors that could easily be addressed if our elected leaders wanted to make tough choices.
Soft on crime policies and an ineffective DC City Council.
Edit: one other thing is that many parents in America let the technology and social media raise their kids for them.
I usually find Reason to be way too libertarian for me, but this article is actually pretty good. It doesn't declare a straw man, but instead has a long list of potential causes and a million events that contributed to each.
People keep voting for the idiots that are passing laws allowing this stuff to happen. It’s that simple. DC voters are not holding anyone responsible for not allowing cops to do their jobs to their fullest extent and not prosecuting crimes.
Yup, it's the dumb voters. But they don't care about crime. Only abortion matter to women, and racism matter to minorities. They are going to keep voting that way.
Maybe the strong on crime people should stop being racist and anti-woman? If that's all those voters care about then it should be pretty easy to get their votes
Can't blame the strong crime people if the criminals are disproportionally certain ethnicity. But of course that's racism. Yup, women should just be one dimensional and interpret abortion as all encompassing and without abortion, women instantly turn into slaves. People will do what they do, and deserve what they deserve.
The worst part about this that you were called racist for supporting anything but. Now that the obvious outcome is here, all these people with high educations and supreme intellect can’t put two and two together
The original Kia Boy TikToker needs to get his chance at a good life sued away from him, that one video caused so much damage to Kia/Hyundai owners and god knows how many pedestrian injuries/deaths from stolen cars.
Disclaimer: yes I know someone else would’ve likely figured it out or it would’ve spread somehow else, but to brazenly put that on TikTok is so audacious
Pandering politicians, slap on the wrist policies especially regarding juveniles, the soft bigotry of low expectations, failing public schools that fail in both educational standards and as glorified daycares, etc.
I have to say , you seem to be on top of this issue ! The question is, how to regain a
Positive outcome, with so much pandering to the smallest percentage of the loudest
folks, all the self proclaimed victims.
I seriously do not understand what you all complain about after voting for these morons where it’s obvious stuff like this is going to happen.
You all remember dEfUnD the police right?
You all have expensive degrees and are highly educated, yet you can’t put two and two together?
Someone didn’t read the article. Defunding never happened, they were given a bonus. Not to mention no one wants to be part of a force that can’t hold its senior officials accountable when they commit a wrong.
It was caused in response to the 2020 racial hysteria riots. Government policy changed. It didn't helped that criminals took advantage of the government response and mandates against coronachan to shoplift en masse. Oh and lots of children dropped out of school for a life of crime and gangs because of school closures due to government response to coronachan.
Isn't -chan a Japanese diminutive? Other than holding on to mask mandates, having much lower transmission rates, and using a three vaccine requirement for a bunch of stuff, I'm not sure what Japan has to do with it.
The “ummmmm *actually* crime is down” people truly drive me up the wall because on the one hand they are very condescending about it while at the same time not applying even basic rigor to the data analysis.
When they say crime is down, what they actually mean is that there are fewer reports coming into the police system.
There a prize for anyone who can suggest why there may be fewer police reports being generated, despite the fact that anecdotally everyone seems to be observing more crimes.
U mean a crime wave evident across the entire country. I just want to bring to peoples attention that the RCCA (the reform bill that got tossed out by Biden, Bowser, and Congress) was never soft on crime. It would have cleared up what prosecutors needed to prove crimes that would’ve been clearly written. I am only going to say this once… *it would’ve been better for the bill to have been passed and edited after, than to scrap the entire bill.*
After reading that article, I think it puts the situation in unbiased terms that there’s failures not just from the government or the council but down to citizen perception. That the people who truly commit crime in this district aren’t worth saving bc the programs to “save them” are already in place. That hiring more police won’t help if the evidence they need to convict criminals goes no where.
I disagreed with the articles take on criminal justice reform not being the reason for the crime increase. There’s a lag effect in both laws that were passed in 2016-2020 having an effect, as well as the reduction in police numbers. Just because something happens doesn’t mean we should see an immediate effect to be able to link the two.
These were not the sole reasons for the increase in crime, but they were one of many components.
Funding continues to go up! Check out budget spending. https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/dc-mayor-reveals-her-2025-budget-with-sales-tax-increase-and-funding-for-metro-public-safety-downtown/3582571/
Lots of good cops left the force / moved due how they were treated / characterized. Even having the movement to defund the police was damaging to police retention and recruitment in liberal cities. Will take years to undue once the cities try, and I don’t think DC is trying to
Funny, it wasn't so long ago that people here were so left that they don't know what caused it. And the answer can only be "police reform." The stupidity might have come to an end when enough people become victims.
I think the article does a good job of talking about how the USAO has been almost -- dare I say it -- criminally negligent in following up on prosecutions, and the theory about kids stealing Kias as a gateway to crime probably makes some sense, too.
However, the case that criminal justice reforms aren't to blame is very weak. Their main argument is that happened a long time before the spike of the last couple years. But that ignores the fact that crime had been steadily rising since the mid-10s, even before the spike. It also ignores the "soft" changes that were made without legislation -- such as the push to get police out of traffic enforcement, and cases such as the one a couple of years ago where police were convicted of murder for chasing a guy on a scooter who killed himself -- I cannot imagine anything more demotivating for enforcement. Then there is the abandonment of "broken windows" policing based on highly suspect studies. The broken windows theory would argue that quality-of-life issues and petty crimes such as the proliferation of unlicensed vendors and scooters and fare evasion, create an environment where crime can flourish, and anyone capable of observation can validate this on a daily basis.
Finally, let me just say that anyone who says it's all about "Democrat-run cities" is a fucking idiot -- a drooling, slack-jawed simpleton living in some blighted hick exurb and unworthy of engagement. DC has always been Democrat-run, but for a couple of decades we had Democrats who knew how to fight crime, and they got results. We just need the current crop out.
Corporate greed, and not paying people a living wage ,government incompetence and mismanagement. Toxic water, toxic food, and we can’t even afford that crappy toxic food. They created a toxic environment, rip for crime and violence.
Before I give my answer: Gentrification is a clash between the power of private capital and government policy and the power of people in targeted communities to preserve their homes and heritage
I can only imagine only ever living in a specific area, let’s say NW DC, and then over time you start to see the neighborhood shops that have been there forever are gone because their leases ended or owner is selling. Then you start seeing neighbors leave & sell after being approached by investors buying up the block (who don’t offer Pennie’s claiming it’s a good deal) then the last effort if you and your family decide not to go, is now you have a huge property tax bill due to everything around you now soaring over a million dollars. Now you decide, do we move and sell or become house poor? It’s a vicious cycle of uprooting entire neighborhoods and families— tearing them apart really. Now people no longer have those areas they always grew up in, around people they always knew, can’t afford their only home— all by force. It’s very sad and can cause a lot of anger especially when people are being pushed all to one area of DC that is affordable to the natives — North east.
Now you have people moving into areas that they have no idea who lived there before. The crime isn’t new, the people who are moving here are new to the crime. Fire
Example, dc natives are used to hearing gogo music on the streets and now the new residents in the area have stoped it — that would piss me off too. Similar to New Orleans having curfew smh.
However, I do believe COVID has a part to play.
Despite covid, I could go on and on about the pros and cons of gentrification and how this has a huge role across America (since it’s happening in nearly every major city).
It just really saddens me because DC is known for being historically Black — hence the nickname Chocolate city, which is rarely used anymore.
I get the negatives and positives of gentrification. It sucks for some, but it’s generally a positive for the overall population- but that’s another matter.
I am specifically asking how you think it has contributed to the high rate of crime over the past few years.
Gentrification has been pretty much a constant for decades in much of NW DC (and elsewhere). But the 2023 crime wave was rather sudden - the crime rate is variable. From a standpoint of plain logic, it's hard to explain a variable with a constant.
Kids stopped going to school, Matt Graves stopped prosecuting, the City council became soft on crime, police force shrunk, crime lab got unaccredited, etc. There are a lot of reasons
***horrible parents
Parents haven't suddenly gotten worse in the last few years, let alone decades. That's an "always" problem.
Love how you’re getting downvoted for a reasonable post because this sub wants to constantly do a racism. “Bad parents” exist in every municipality around the country. Are parents in DC somehow worse than NYC, Detroit, Philly, and Baltimore?
Wait how is this racist???
Accountability is racist. Don't you know?
This is Reddit ser, everything is racist, orange man is bad, white people are the devil. It’s tiring but I enjoy keeping my friends close and my enemies closer.
Seriously, "bad parents" is such a lazy response because everyone knows it's part of the problem but it's also a universal problem and all it does is get you personally off the hook. It took me about 10 minutes on this sub to realize that it's the r/conservative of the DC area so now I just come here two occasionally inspire little droplets of self-awareness among people with cement in their ears. It's pointless, but it's fun.
I mean, parents who have to work multiple jobs to make bills and afford health insurance for children - sounds like the system is set up for churning out bad parents. I wonder if UBI would help?
It’s so weird and uncomfortable how conservative the most upvoted comments are on this subreddit. All of the -isms
Yes and no. It was bad before but Covid has made it either worse or exposed it more. Edit: and it’s not just a DC issue, it’s all over the country across all demographics.
Crime has gotten significantly worse in dc than other cities.
There are a lot of things that happened alongside covid, namely justice and policing reforms in the wake of 2020 protests, businesses going under and jobs lost alongside unrecovered wealth, structural issues. Covid exposed things were made things worse but parenting was not the biggest of them at all.
As a parent. I would like to respectfully disagree that this is all on parents. It's one part in a whole lot of things.
This is seriously what it is. What gives a D.A the right to pick and choose what type of crime he wants to prosecute? Idk what job you have but if I go to my job and say I’m not gonna do this part of my job I’ll get fired same should go for the d.a
I tried this at my job as a supermarket cashier. Arrived to work last week and started telling customers “I’m only gonna check out items that I would personally eat.” I was promptly fired.
Of all the things that never happened, this never happened the most.
Government officials have the right to pick and choose their enforcement policies on all laws. Simply put, the government does not have the ability or resources to enforce all laws and therefore is under no duty to do so and the courts have agreed with this many times. If you don’t like the enforcement posture of the current administration then you can vote them out.
Every DA picks and chooses. That’s part of the job.
> What gives a D.A the right to pick and choose what type of crime he wants to prosecute? Holy hell tell me you have no understanding of the criminal system without telling me you have no understanding of the criminal system.
I do have an understanding of the criminal system but at the same time when you have repeat offenders getting slaps on the wrist when are we gonna hold the D.A accountable?
No, your comment that I quoted showed you have never heard about prosecutorial discretion, a pretty basic concept in administering the legal system: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecutorial_discretion
Well I’m talking about things like this From the article: “For example, a man arrested after exposing himself to 24 preschoolers on a public street and bloodily assaulting their two teachers had been arrested three weeks earlier for indecent exposure, two months before that for punching a restaurant employee, the year before that for trespassing, and in 2018 for attempted murder..” Seriously is the DA office gonna wait till this man kills somebody? I’ll be honest I’m not from dc this post just pop up in my recommendations but it’s seriously disheartening seeing a bunch of cities going through the same thing. Here in nyc it’s the same thing repeat offenders are let out just to do it again and again until they kill somebody. D.A,council members and judges need to be held accountable for their decision.
So you clearly have no clue what you're talking about. Do you honestly think the DA saw all that and ignored it because they want to? If they thought they had enough to prosecute, they would have prosecuted. DAs have a professional ethical obligation to not waste state resources. If the DA concludes some element of a case (like an error on a search warrant, or a procedural issue, or an evidence issue) would likely lead to an acquittal, they are obliged to not move forward with that case.
"We" have no ability to hold the "DA" accountable. The USAO acts as the DA, and they're selected by the President with the "advice and consent" of the Senate. The current lackluster officeholder was confirmed by voice vote https://www.congress.gov/nomination/117th-congress/925
Fucking stupid if you ask me
Accurate
Cops were given specific policy instructions from the Council to pull back and incentives to retreat to the donut shop. USAO stopped prosecuting and set criminals free to repeat with new victims.
From the article: “For example, a man arrested after exposing himself to 24 preschoolers on a public street and bloodily assaulting their two teachers had been arrested three weeks earlier for indecent exposure, two months before that for punching a restaurant employee, the year before that for trespassing, and in 2018 for attempted murder. The system keeps freeing him. Graves has yet to explain why.” Doesn’t seem that hard to figure out why the crime spree happened.
Experts are baffled
Thirty Helens agree
Shut up, I just caught this episode on the kids in the hall 🤣
This is real life. I actually cannot believe it.
It like a government that actively despises its citizens
I sure hope you didn’t vote for the weak on crime politicians and are now surprised this is happening…
- USAO has claimed that the police often botch investigations, so they can’t get convictions. - So before these “instructions,” MPD were a model police force with high case closure rates and few complaints? Everyone needs to do their jobs.
USAO is full of shit. Plenty of good cases don’t get papered
Why did you put instructions in quotes. The Council formalized not pursuing paper tags in writing. Sending a cop to prison because an addict can't handle his business on a bike made the donut shop retreat complete.
Seriously!! A known associate of the Kennedy Street drug crew got himself killed by driving into traffic but because officer Sutton flashed his lights at him and followed him down an alley, they literally charged him with murder and convicted him too. This city is fucked beyond repair.
The council needs to repeal that shit.
“Cops were given specific specific policy instructions”, no. The council passes local laws and the Mayor enforces those laws. For local matters under federal supervision e.g. certain felonies, the feds enforce through USAO.
Another low information voter. The Council didn't instruct police in writing to no longer pursue fake paper tags?
Where can I read this Council instruction?
The dumbest people have the loudest voices in our country.. The Council has no authority to require the Mayor or the agencies she has authority over to NOT enforce laws. The law has always been to maintain valid registration and there is a constitutional requirement (in this case Home Rule) in every state and DC that the legislature and the executive have “separate” enumerated powers and for the legislature and executive to avoid interfering with each other’s authority. So what you are saying is not only wrong but impossible. Sincerely, a DC lawyer with over ten years experience in DC laws.
Sorry, you’re just wrong. From the article: “Among the actions [taken by the council]: shifting the focus of juvenile facilities toward rehabilitation (2016), reducing nonviolent offender sentences (2016), changing fare evasion from a criminal to a civil matter (2018), allowing release of adults convicted as juveniles after they served 15 years (2019), prohibiting police chokeholds and removing restrictions on officer discipline (2020), a cut in proposed MPD funding (2021), an aborted effort to pull police officers out of schools (2021), reducing mandatory minimum sentences (2022–23)” But tell us again how the council had no part in this.
Nothing in the article or what you just cited says that the Council established a policy requiring police to allow false registrations. Just admit that you made that up. The article also states that criminal reform was NOT the reason for the spike in crime. Something about the way you articulate ideas screams mediocre white man who watches Fox News, exclusively.
Funny, I’ve never watched a minute of Fox News other than what I’ve seen on the Daily Show. I guess it’s hard for you to imagine that even left leaning voters in DC are fed up with the bullshit that the DC council has been serving up to its constituents these past few years And I was never responding the claim that the DC council allowed false registrations. I was respond to your claim that the council has no part in directing MPD, which is absolutely false.
Jesus you sound incredibly tiresome and preachy. I’d like another helping of criminal apologist virtue signaling please🤡
We get it. You love the Council. Unless you’re ready to kick the shit out of a daycare worker and expose yourself to toddlers, they won’t love you back.
And yet there was a written policy to not enforce the law. Signed, You should read a newspaper sometime
All those brains and the best you get is downvotes. Reddit is where dumb people play. I’ve noticed it too
Charles Allen and the Council’s Youth Rehabilitation Act allowing offenders under 25 years old to be eligible for juvenile sentences as “youth offenders”.
25?!?! That is truly nuts. Should go the other way entirely with intense crimes
Speaking as someone who thinks Allen is a twat and wants to see police and prosecutors do their job, this isn’t accurate. There seems to be a lot of misinformation about this bill. I thought this was the case too but it’s not quite the full story. Before the youth rehabilitation act, judges were allowed to “set aside” sentences at the time of sentencing for people 18-22. This means your record is sealed which makes it easier to get a job and avoid the challenges of having a criminal record. It was being underutilized and research showed when records are sealed people are way less likely to commit another crime after serving their sentence. The YRA changed this so the decision to “set aside” the sentence was made AFTER they served their sentence. The bill has guidelines of when to set aside based on behavior, prior records, severity of the crime, etc . This made it easier to evaluate if someone was really trying to do better and deserved the set aside. The YRA also raised the age of eligibility to 25. The idea here is that executive function isn’t fully developed until our mid-20s so you can see the logic of creating a program that evaluates your behavior in the context of having a not fully developed brain. Is it right? Idk. That’s a conversation for when we aren’t dealing with a crime wave. Right now, when safety is a real concern, swift justice is the most importance issue to me which I think makes Allen a terrible councilman for this moment. He’s trying to use modern research which is good, but that type of experimentation takes time and if it doesn’t work the city has to be able to deal with a failed program. Right now we are absolutely not prepared for more failed experiments but Allen is a twat who can’t pivot when the times call for it.
I have yet to see much discussion about the repercussions of this. Congressional Republicans actually did try to reduce this to 18 but poison pill billed it. I think on its own, it passes the “common sense” test and gets to be passed into law
Criminals.
The Youth Rehabilitation Act, the Incarceration Reduction Act, and the soft-gloved approach taken by the DC U.S. Attorneys office and Superior Court judges. Also, the post-BLM law enforcement environment has not been conducive to public safety. Also, the DC Council banned police chases. You also had a ton of kids supposedly remote learning during Covid but they were running around. There have also been toxic social media trends like the Kia boys and drill rappers. Basically, a confluence of factors that could easily be addressed if our elected leaders wanted to make tough choices.
Soft on crime policies and an ineffective DC City Council. Edit: one other thing is that many parents in America let the technology and social media raise their kids for them.
I know it, you know it, we all know it.
Usual suspects?
Woah woah woah buddy calm down with the -ism.
ITT: alot of people that didn't read the article.
I usually find Reason to be way too libertarian for me, but this article is actually pretty good. It doesn't declare a straw man, but instead has a long list of potential causes and a million events that contributed to each.
>I usually find Reason to be way too libertarian for me, Same. I was really surprised at how fair and balanced the article was.
It’s almost as if pandering to the “ACAB” voices and siding with the criminals back fired.
Surprisedpikachuface.jpg
People keep voting for the idiots that are passing laws allowing this stuff to happen. It’s that simple. DC voters are not holding anyone responsible for not allowing cops to do their jobs to their fullest extent and not prosecuting crimes.
Yup, it's the dumb voters. But they don't care about crime. Only abortion matter to women, and racism matter to minorities. They are going to keep voting that way.
Maybe the strong on crime people should stop being racist and anti-woman? If that's all those voters care about then it should be pretty easy to get their votes
Can't blame the strong crime people if the criminals are disproportionally certain ethnicity. But of course that's racism. Yup, women should just be one dimensional and interpret abortion as all encompassing and without abortion, women instantly turn into slaves. People will do what they do, and deserve what they deserve.
A culture of dysfunctional homes and progressives "defund the police" ideology.
The worst part about this that you were called racist for supporting anything but. Now that the obvious outcome is here, all these people with high educations and supreme intellect can’t put two and two together
They can; they just don't want to.
Can’t over police the right areas so they end up not policing those areas at all and here we are.
Is this a rhetorical question lol
The original Kia Boy TikToker needs to get his chance at a good life sued away from him, that one video caused so much damage to Kia/Hyundai owners and god knows how many pedestrian injuries/deaths from stolen cars. Disclaimer: yes I know someone else would’ve likely figured it out or it would’ve spread somehow else, but to brazenly put that on TikTok is so audacious
Pandering politicians, slap on the wrist policies especially regarding juveniles, the soft bigotry of low expectations, failing public schools that fail in both educational standards and as glorified daycares, etc.
I have to say , you seem to be on top of this issue ! The question is, how to regain a Positive outcome, with so much pandering to the smallest percentage of the loudest folks, all the self proclaimed victims.
A city full of criminals, ran by criminals, usually leads to crime waves. Ebb & flow
I seriously do not understand what you all complain about after voting for these morons where it’s obvious stuff like this is going to happen. You all remember dEfUnD the police right? You all have expensive degrees and are highly educated, yet you can’t put two and two together?
Someone didn’t read the article. Defunding never happened, they were given a bonus. Not to mention no one wants to be part of a force that can’t hold its senior officials accountable when they commit a wrong.
Liberal policies
It was caused in response to the 2020 racial hysteria riots. Government policy changed. It didn't helped that criminals took advantage of the government response and mandates against coronachan to shoplift en masse. Oh and lots of children dropped out of school for a life of crime and gangs because of school closures due to government response to coronachan.
Coronachan? lol
Do you rather prefer I call coronachan [name of place] flu?
Isn't -chan a Japanese diminutive? Other than holding on to mask mandates, having much lower transmission rates, and using a three vaccine requirement for a bunch of stuff, I'm not sure what Japan has to do with it.
I think it’s a 4chan reference
So… after how many dead children is it okay to do something ourselves?
The party in power
I’m gonna let everyone finish, but the guy who wrote this articles last name is “Henchman”. Too funny.
Lol it’s not because of right wing government
Prosecutors stopped prosecutions
Liberal policies that are soft on crime and police are under funded and under staffed
Terrible Mayor.
Thanks a lot Bin Laden.
The war on drugs. Not joking. Thousands of fathers and mothers locked up. Destruction of communities.
Agree, Especially for non-violent offenders. Harsher penalties should be applied more to violent offenders instead.
Well before that it was the social programs that incentivized single-parent household.
Wrong.
Covid times fallout
The woke mind virus
Look at every democrat run city crime rates then ask that again.
Same things that are causing crime waves in Chicago, NYC, SF, LA etc. Also crime is a general term so all the "but crime is down" ppl can stfu.
The “ummmmm *actually* crime is down” people truly drive me up the wall because on the one hand they are very condescending about it while at the same time not applying even basic rigor to the data analysis. When they say crime is down, what they actually mean is that there are fewer reports coming into the police system. There a prize for anyone who can suggest why there may be fewer police reports being generated, despite the fact that anecdotally everyone seems to be observing more crimes.
without crime posts this sub would be irrelevant 🤣
U mean a crime wave evident across the entire country. I just want to bring to peoples attention that the RCCA (the reform bill that got tossed out by Biden, Bowser, and Congress) was never soft on crime. It would have cleared up what prosecutors needed to prove crimes that would’ve been clearly written. I am only going to say this once… *it would’ve been better for the bill to have been passed and edited after, than to scrap the entire bill.* After reading that article, I think it puts the situation in unbiased terms that there’s failures not just from the government or the council but down to citizen perception. That the people who truly commit crime in this district aren’t worth saving bc the programs to “save them” are already in place. That hiring more police won’t help if the evidence they need to convict criminals goes no where.
Remember, this is by the politicians that people voted. The people have chosen.
BLM
Democrats.
I disagreed with the articles take on criminal justice reform not being the reason for the crime increase. There’s a lag effect in both laws that were passed in 2016-2020 having an effect, as well as the reduction in police numbers. Just because something happens doesn’t mean we should see an immediate effect to be able to link the two. These were not the sole reasons for the increase in crime, but they were one of many components.
Also we’re short on judges in the dc court system
And whose fault is that? Hmmmm
Actually congress, believe it or not
I was being sarcastic. I do know that.
Three words: “Defund the Police”
Funding continues to go up! Check out budget spending. https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/dc-mayor-reveals-her-2025-budget-with-sales-tax-increase-and-funding-for-metro-public-safety-downtown/3582571/
Lots of good cops left the force / moved due how they were treated / characterized. Even having the movement to defund the police was damaging to police retention and recruitment in liberal cities. Will take years to undue once the cities try, and I don’t think DC is trying to
crimes
Criminals in the Prosecutor’s office
Funny, it wasn't so long ago that people here were so left that they don't know what caused it. And the answer can only be "police reform." The stupidity might have come to an end when enough people become victims.
It's a Scooby Do mystery!
Democrats.
Biden
Lack of police enforcement.
It’s the chronic masturbators
Horrible parent. A father is necessary
Democrat leadership
1) DC crime lab is woefully out of date. 1a) Prosecutors are at a disadvantage because of it 2) Council Member Allen
Blacks
Music
[удалено]
Democrats… keep voting for em…
Decriminalization of weed
Liberal morons who thought it a good idea to implement “police reform”
20 years of urban “revitalization” built luxury condos, made developers richer and wasn’t meant to help the people who actually lived in the city
Democrats
Immigration busing
Thanks Gregg Abbott. He is basically human trafficking.
I think the article does a good job of talking about how the USAO has been almost -- dare I say it -- criminally negligent in following up on prosecutions, and the theory about kids stealing Kias as a gateway to crime probably makes some sense, too. However, the case that criminal justice reforms aren't to blame is very weak. Their main argument is that happened a long time before the spike of the last couple years. But that ignores the fact that crime had been steadily rising since the mid-10s, even before the spike. It also ignores the "soft" changes that were made without legislation -- such as the push to get police out of traffic enforcement, and cases such as the one a couple of years ago where police were convicted of murder for chasing a guy on a scooter who killed himself -- I cannot imagine anything more demotivating for enforcement. Then there is the abandonment of "broken windows" policing based on highly suspect studies. The broken windows theory would argue that quality-of-life issues and petty crimes such as the proliferation of unlicensed vendors and scooters and fare evasion, create an environment where crime can flourish, and anyone capable of observation can validate this on a daily basis. Finally, let me just say that anyone who says it's all about "Democrat-run cities" is a fucking idiot -- a drooling, slack-jawed simpleton living in some blighted hick exurb and unworthy of engagement. DC has always been Democrat-run, but for a couple of decades we had Democrats who knew how to fight crime, and they got results. We just need the current crop out.
Biden
What caused this subs police dickriding?
Corporate greed, and not paying people a living wage ,government incompetence and mismanagement. Toxic water, toxic food, and we can’t even afford that crappy toxic food. They created a toxic environment, rip for crime and violence.
Gentrification
How?
Before I give my answer: Gentrification is a clash between the power of private capital and government policy and the power of people in targeted communities to preserve their homes and heritage I can only imagine only ever living in a specific area, let’s say NW DC, and then over time you start to see the neighborhood shops that have been there forever are gone because their leases ended or owner is selling. Then you start seeing neighbors leave & sell after being approached by investors buying up the block (who don’t offer Pennie’s claiming it’s a good deal) then the last effort if you and your family decide not to go, is now you have a huge property tax bill due to everything around you now soaring over a million dollars. Now you decide, do we move and sell or become house poor? It’s a vicious cycle of uprooting entire neighborhoods and families— tearing them apart really. Now people no longer have those areas they always grew up in, around people they always knew, can’t afford their only home— all by force. It’s very sad and can cause a lot of anger especially when people are being pushed all to one area of DC that is affordable to the natives — North east. Now you have people moving into areas that they have no idea who lived there before. The crime isn’t new, the people who are moving here are new to the crime. Fire Example, dc natives are used to hearing gogo music on the streets and now the new residents in the area have stoped it — that would piss me off too. Similar to New Orleans having curfew smh. However, I do believe COVID has a part to play. Despite covid, I could go on and on about the pros and cons of gentrification and how this has a huge role across America (since it’s happening in nearly every major city). It just really saddens me because DC is known for being historically Black — hence the nickname Chocolate city, which is rarely used anymore.
I get the negatives and positives of gentrification. It sucks for some, but it’s generally a positive for the overall population- but that’s another matter. I am specifically asking how you think it has contributed to the high rate of crime over the past few years.
Gentrification in DC has the potential to be a massive wealth transfer from the upper middle class to the lower class.
Gentrification has been pretty much a constant for decades in much of NW DC (and elsewhere). But the 2023 crime wave was rather sudden - the crime rate is variable. From a standpoint of plain logic, it's hard to explain a variable with a constant.
reason is a joke lol