Here’s What I Discovered: How DC (and other Blue Cities) Managed to “Lower” Violent Crime Rates in Recent Years
There is no doubt that DC has a crime problem that is not going down. Everyone living in DC knows that. But it’s also true that the crime rates, as reported, are going down. So what gives?
The answer is quite simple – but no one reporting on it seems to have the common sense to identify it.
DC’s crime rate has been going down for the last several years not because there have been fewer muggings, robberies, and assaults, but because the DC government, its mayor and many of the most powerful people in the hierarchy of Justice, have stopped prosecuting crimes.
Cashless bail, a massive downgrading of felonies to misdemeanors (which are often disproved or, if proven, result in no jail time), and the refusal of many new DAs to prosecute crimes committed by “people of color” – that’s why crime rates are dropping.
Consider these facts:
* Of the 5,558 total arrests for carrying a pistol without a license, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia – essentially the local DA – refused to file a charge in 1,933 (34.2%) of those cases.
* Worse, another 1,213 (32.7%) of the original 5,558 arrests were closed without a conviction.
* In Washington, DC, between 2018 and 2022, only 1.7% of people arrested for carrying a pistol without a license were sentenced to prison.
* Only 2,218 cases (39.9%) of the 5,558 arrests resulted in a conviction for any criminal offense, although 279 cases (7.5%) are still pending. Of those 2,218 convictions, 654 (29.5%) were for misdemeanors and 1,564 (70.5%) for felonies. Out of the 1,564 felony convictions, 85 defendants have yet to be sentenced. Out of the 1,479 cases in which a sentence has been imposed, only 819 contained a conviction for carrying a pistol without a license (CPWL) or its equivalent – although, in fairness, some of the defendants in the remaining 660 cases were convicted of more severe offenses.
* Of those 819 CPWL felony convictions, 57.7% got sentenced to probation and 30.5% got a “split sentence,” meaning they got sentenced within the local sentencing guidelines that included a jail sentence of six months or less.
