D.C. crime engulfs local news after city council voted to lower sentences for criminal conduct
Posted For; MugsMalone
by Nikolas Lanum
Washington, D.C. saw a bleak start to the new year with violent crimes plastered across the front pages of local news after the city council voted to lessen sentences for some criminal conduct.
In a 12-1 vote, the D.C. Council voted last Tuesday to override Mayor Muriel Bowser’s decision to veto a gigantic remodeling to the city’s criminal code.
The overhaul of the city’s criminal code includes:
Reduced maximum sentences.
The elimination of nearly all mandatory minimum sentences.
Expanded rights to jury trials by those accused of misdemeanors.
Opponents of the new provisions have expressed concern over a rule allowing D.C. inmates to ask for early release 20 years into their sentence, even those accused of violent crimes, including murder.
On Monday, the top local stories in the Post all related to crime, including a man fatally shot at a metro station, another man shot in a D.C. building, two people found dead following a fire, and a body found just two blocks from the White House.
NBC4 News in D.C.’s top stories also included the recent local shootings and a story about a city police officer stabbed in the face.
ABC 7 top local stories included fentanyl overdoses, a call to hire more police officers to address a rise in illegally parked cars, a woman arrested after assaulting a police officer, and a shooting.
D.C. already began the new year with a slew of serious crimes before the city council’s decision.
D.C. police statistics show that compared to this time in 2022, thefts from cars are up 30%, and car thefts are up 113%. Robberies have increased by 57%, and overall property crimes, such as burglary and arson, have risen 42% over the same time last year.
A shooting outside the Navy Yard Metro station on January 7 was one of six for the first week of the year, bringing first-week homicide numbers to twice that of the first week of 2021.
Carjackings in the city increased 46% in April 2022 versus the same time in 2021.
Homicides and severe assaults in 2022 dropped from 2021; however, juveniles were more likely to be victims of violent crimes than in years prior.
Mayor Muriel Bowser vetoed the Revised Criminal Code Act earlier this month after the council, which lacks a single Republican member, voted unanimously to adopt it in November.
D.C. City Council’s Tuesday decision sends the bill to Congress, where federal lawmakers will have 60 days to review it.
If enacted, the revisions will go into effect in 2025.
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