Washington, D.C.'s 12-day streak without a murder ended at about 12:20 a.m. Tuesday, after local residents heard a gunshot on the 300 block of Anacostia Road SE. Police quickly arrived to find the victim, but he soon succumbed at a nearby hospital.
The victim's name and other details have yet to be released, but the 12-day streak is a near record for recent years. WUSA-9 News reported that the District enjoyed a "16-day streak without homicides from Feb. 25 through March 12." Not bad, but let's see if the Guard can help the city go for 17 days starting... NOW.
There were also two one-week-long stretches back in April and May — not that a week without a homicide is anything to brag about, particularly in the capital city of a great nation.
But the city has earned some crime-related bragging rights since President Donald Trump ordered in the National Guard on August 7 to restore some order to a city grown increasingly lawless since the martyrdom of St. George Floyd of Minneapolis in 2020.
In addition to the unusual 12 days without a murder, the overall crime rate dropped 11%. That includes a 22% drop in violent crimes, with robberies down a whopping 42% and carjackings down an even more impressive 85%.
Did I say the city? No, Trump earned those bragging rights.
City officials — and even a few lily-white protestors, likely imported from the wealthier northern Virginia suburbs — fought Trump tooth and nail. Actual residents, however, don't seem to mind getting robbed a whole lot less.
Impressive as the reported crime declines are, recent news re-raises a question a lot of folks have asked for a couple of years now: "Crime is down from what, really?"
Earlier this month, city officials settled a lawsuit filed by D.C. police sergeant-turned-whistleblower Charlotte Djossou. Djossou's suit claimed that Metro police routinely misclassified crimes as lesser offenses and that "districts compete against each other to get the largest reduction in the crime statistics."
A reduction on paper, mind you, not on the streets — bad stuff doesn't sweep itself under the rug, you know. I'm not at all certain anybody gets away with misfiling a rape report as jaywalking or whatever, but the city chose to settle with Djossou out of court, rather than go through discovery. A pity, yes?
Now there's more.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Social Media Stud (I might have made up that last part) Stephen Miller said — alongside Trump in the Oval Office Monday — that the administration uncovered a "massive scandal" involving a crime cover-up just as audacious as you can imagine. According to Miller, Metro reportedly police went so far as to file actual homicides as "accidents instead of murders."
Do we need to take another look at that 16-day no murders streak? Do we need to take a deep look into D.C.'s claims that crime has come way down since its 2022-23 peaks? I think we do — and, more importantly, so does Miller.
"It will all be brought to light," Miller promised.
Let's see D.C. try to sweep him under the rug.
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