National Review’s editors wrote this morning about crime in the capital and the violent carjackings that occur at random and usually safe times of the day:
On Tuesday, D.C. city councilman Charles Allen led a public panel discussion on the rise of carjackings and juvenile crime in the city. Also in attendance were D.C. attorney general Brian Schwalb and U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., Matthew Graves (the two divide criminal-justice authority between them). Pressed for solutions, Schwalb had little to offer. “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,” he said. He absurdly added: “We cannot prosecute and arrest our way out of it.”
A colleague and I were driving from Capitol Hill to Navy Yard just now, around 1 p.m., when we heard sirens blare from behind us. We quickly pulled down a side street, just in time for us to see a black BMW speed down the street, tires blazing, with about six cop cars on its tail.
Turns out, of course, that the BMW was carjacked. Police caught the guy and arrested him a few minutes after he almost rammed into us on the road (though who knows how long he’ll be detained). D.C. crime is rampant, terribly normal, and happens at any time, in most neighborhoods. D.C. authorities could at least try to prosecute and arrest their way out of it.