Washington, D.C. is not only the nation’s political capital, it’s also becoming the nation’s crime capital. While murder rates have declined in other major cities, the New Republic reports, "With 274 homicides, 2023 was the deadliest year in Washington, D.C., in more than two decades. . . .
"With the fifth-highest murder rate among the country’s most populous cities, Washington, D.C. has drawn national attention for its recent spike in violent crime.
"The statistics are sobering: 2023 was the District’s deadliest year since 1997, with 274 recorded homicides. With 40 homicides per 100,000 residents — an increase of 35% from the previous year."
Axios, another leftwing outlet, is concerned enough to share, "Violent crime is up 38% in Washington compared to the same time last year." And in Adams Morgan, a tourist and nightlife hotspot (maybe not for long) robberies "soared 95% from last year."
The response of D.C. Atty. Gen. Brian Schwalb to this astounding and frightening set of statistics, "We as a city and a community need to be much more focused on prevention and surrounding young people and their families with resources if we want to be safer in the long run. "We cannot prosecute and arrest our way out of it."
In other words keep shoveling money to the same leftist patronage networks and nongovernmental agencies (NGOs) that have failed to make a difference for decades.
And we thought it was Congressional Republicans who specialized in preemptive surrender.
Schwalb is telling the residents of D.C. three things:
- One, they are on their own.
- Two, as a weakling he intends to dodge responsibility by blaming the usual list of leftist excuses that have created our current crime crisis and conveniently never get solved.
- And three, he’s ignorant.
There is a crime success story only 3,000 miles south of D.C. and even better, Schwalb won’t have to travel outside the city limits to do his research, since so many of El Salvador’s citizens are already in his city.
In 2019 when Nayib Bukele was elected president of El Salvador the murder rate there was 38 deaths per 100,000 population.
Gangs controlled large sections of the cities. Businesses had to pay for "protection" from gangs. And the streets were deserted at night. Unless you were a gang member.
What did he do? Bukele arrested his way out of the problem.
El Salvador’s murder rate is now 7.8 per 100,000.
Approximately one-half of the rest of Latin America’s rate and a mere one-fifth of D.C.’s 40 homicides per 100,000 in 2023.
How was this miracle of safety and prosperity accomplished?
We guarantee it wasn’t by "surrounding young people and their families with resources."
According to The New York Times — which, by the way, disapproves of his successful methods — "The crackdown Mr. Bukele has led on organized crime has all but dismantled the infamous street gangs that terrorized the population for decades. . . . Since March 2022, when Mr. Bukele declared a state of emergency that suspended basic civil liberties, security forces have locked up roughly 75,000 people.
"A staggering one in 45 adults is now in prison."
The result?
"Walking the streets of the capital, San Salvador, in the days before the election, we saw firsthand how families with children have returned to parks.
"People can now cross formerly impassable gang-controlled borders between neighborhoods. The city center, which for years was largely empty by sunset, is now lively late into the night."
That sounds like the way D.C. used to be before leftists started emphasizing the feeling of criminals instead of citizens.
The New York Times and the rest of the leftist regime media oppose Bukele and his success and they bleat about the number of criminals in jail and "democracy."
But El Salvador had a dose of democracy just recently and Bukele was elected with a majority of over 80%.
A larger margin than in the socialist tyrannies like Venezuela to which the media is so sympathetic.
D.C. could arrest its way out of its crime crisis, but first the residents have to vote the architects of the problem out of office.
So far, they're getting what they voted for.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker's bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now With Added Humor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.
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