The nation’s capital has seen a major leap in violent violence in recent years, putting people, readers, and politicians at increased risk of abuse.
On Thursday, a House committee held a hearing to discuss the District of Columbia’s violence problem.
Rafael A. Mangual, a liberal think tank affiliated with the Manhattan Institute, who testified against a major revision of how to address violence in the District. Mangual said the nation’s capital is suffering a” violence and disorder issue”.
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The murder spike in Washington, D. C., which surged significantly beginning in the summer of 2020, continues to escalate with much sign of slowing down.
Some people are now questioning the District of Columbia’s “home rule,” which allows the capital to regulate itself rather than be governed immediately by Congress as it was years ago.
In response to a traditional rise in carjackings, Congress and President Joe Biden vetoed a murder act that the D.C. Council had passed in March 2023. In 2023, the city experienced 959 carjackings, which is double the number of the previous year.
A number of well-known incidents, including the burglary of a representative and the death of an Afghanistan interpreter in connection with the carjacking, have highlighted this crime.  ,
The 13- part D. C. Council, made up of 11 Liberals and two politicians, has taken some steps this year to start getting murder under command.
However, Mangual’s evidence during the House Administration Committee hearing, titled” D. C. Crime’s Effect on Congressional Operations and Visitors”, laid out the depth of the issues and offered some answers.
According to Mangual, violent crime decreased in many cities across the nation last year, but the District saw a 35 % increase in homicides and a 39 % increase in all violent crime.  ,
This makes the District’s killing charge the highest it’s been in 26 years.
That’s not all. Mangual said that robberies and car thefts are up 67 % and 82 %, respectively, and that carjackings have “nearly doubled”. The burglary number is significant, he said, because the town now has suffered , half a decade of year- to- year carjacking increases.
The Manhattan Institute scholar said that these statistics are even more amazing given how the District of Columbia—like some additional U. S. cities after the COVID- 19 lockdowns—has seen a substantial drop in “routine activities” such as foot traffic, in- office work, and public transit ridership.
Based on cell phone data, Mangual noted, foot traffic in downtown Washington has dropped 70 % from pre- pandemic numbers.
This implies that “what the official crime statistics do n’t fully capture is that crime is rising dramatically even though the chance for crime is down,” Mangual said.
This trend has been common throughout the nation, he said, meaning that while crime numbers are down in many other cities, the odds of being victimized in cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago are up by 15 % to 30 % compared to 2020.
After disclosing these statistics, Mangual presented his theories regarding what led to the rise in D.C. crime and what can be done to stop it.
He claimed that the District has struggled in two crucial areas when it comes to crime.
The first is the declining number of well-versed police officers on the street, according to Mangual, noting that there are fewer officers in the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department per officer than in 2020.
He claims that this brings the city police force to its “lowest staffing level in 50 years.”
Mangual directly linked this statistic to the city’s sharp decline in arrests after 2020, claiming that a higher number of police officers would lead to fewer homicides in the city’s “most troubled enclaves.”
The second driver of increased crime in the District is repeat offenders, he said.
Not enough is being done, according to Mangual, to stop those who repeatedly offend. According to a report released in 2021 by the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, “approximate 86 % of homicide victims and suspects were known by the criminal justice system prior to the incident.”
Additionally, according to Mangual, the study found that the majority of victims and suspects had been detained about 11 times for 13 offenses prior to the homicide.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office’s reduction in the number of felony and misdemeanor arrests by police has n’t solved this issue, he claimed, noting that the number of cases that office has charged hit a 20-year low in 2022. This number went up in 2023, however.
” I do n’t believe it’s a coincidence that the city has also seen public safety decline since more significantly moving in that direction,” Mangual said.” The reality is that D. C. has not been immune from the general national trend toward de-policing and de-incarceration.
Mangual concluded by stating that despite the District of Columbia’s overall decline in crime, more police and prosecutions must be directed at repeat offenders.  ,
According to him, the nation’s capital must address the gaps in policing and prosecution that have prevented the kind of crimes that have plagued D.C. and visitors for far too long.
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