Finger-pointing on Rising Crime Rate Prompts Calls for Stricter Enforcement

Washington, D.C.’s mayor is casting doubt on whether the city’s attorney general is adequately protecting residents against crime in a dispute echoed nationwide amid a surge in violence.

"When a violent crime happens in our city, we need people paying close attention to what happens along the whole process – from arrest to detention decision for those awaiting trial,” Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote in her recent newsletter.

She added, “Unfortunately, right now we know that young people are not being held sufficiently accountable.”

Although she did not mention Attorney General Karl Racine by name, the implication was clear that she felt her own prosecutors might not be doing their jobs properly.

Washington is not alone in the infighting after the FBI reported last month that homicides reached a 25-year-high last year in cities nationwide.

Several cities set homicide records in 2021. Philadelphia; Portland, Ore.; Louisville, Ky.; and Albuquerque, N.M., reported their deadliest years.

Homicides are up by 44 percent nationwide over 2019 levels, according to a report released last month by the Council on Criminal Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based public policy foundation.

The police union for the Washington Metropolitan Police Department is urging the D.C. Council to appropriate funding to hire more officers at a time their numbers are down by hundreds.

Rising crime also set off speculation about the reasons behind it. Criminologists blame anger toward police after the Black Lives Matter movement, frustration over the COVID-19 pandemic and soft-on-crime policies that release criminal suspects on little or no bail money.

“While it is impossible to be certain, it is probable that the pandemic, protests, and other factors all combined to create a ‘perfect storm’ of circumstances pushing homicide rates to record levels,” the Council on Criminal Justice has reported.

President Joe Biden met with New York City’s mayor last week to discuss crime prevention as he faces criticism from Republicans about whether he is doing enough to confront violent criminals.

For more information, contact The Legal Forum (www.legal-forum.net) at email: [email protected] or phone: 202-479-7240.