EDITORIAL: D.C. liberals get jacked by their own policies

OPINION:

A woman, her boyfriend and her sister were carjacked last Saturday night by four armed, masked men in Northwest D.C. in what used to be considered a safe neighborhood.

Desperadoes driving behind the trio lightly tapped the rear bumper of their car. When the woman behind the wheel pulled over to inspect the damage, the ruffians got out, guns drawn. The innocent travelers were pulled out and left stranded on the curb, watching their car drive away.

The woman reported what happened only to be informed by the cop on duty that she should spread the word that rear-end collision victims should stay in their vehicle and either drive to a nearby police station or call 911 to describe the car that hit them. This sort of robbery is now so common it’s been given its own name: “Bump-and-jack.”

Welcome to Washington, D.C., where it’s not safe to get out of your car.

Carjackings have more than doubled in the nation’s capital over the last 12 months. There have been 894 such incidents within the nation’s capital so far this year, 77% of which involved guns. At this rate, the total will be 1,000 carjackings by December 31.

Anyone can be a target. This month, three people tried to break into an unmarked Secret Service vehicle outside the Georgetown apartment of President Joe Biden’s granddaughter, Naomi Biden, causing Secret Service agents to fire shots. Rep. Henry Cuellar was carjacked near his home in Navy Yard by three armed assailants last month. They took his ride, but fortunately they didn’t physically harm the Texas Democrat.

Mayor Muriel Bowser’s response to the epidemic has been to hand out free Apple AirTags so residents can track their stolen cars. D.C.’s deputy mayor for public safety, Lyndsey Appiah, told the House Judiciary Committee in October that the city is in the midst of a crisis, with violent crime surging 40% this year compared to last, even as it’s declined in other major cities.

So, what makes the District so special? Its soft-on-crime approach.

In the nation’s capital, most crimes committed by adults are prosecuted by an appointed U.S. attorney, not an elected district attorney. U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves last fiscal year declined to charge, at the time of arrest, 67% of all offenses.

The Metropolitan Police (MPD) also suffered setbacks during 2020’s “summer of love,” with the city council slashing the police budget by $15 million. Ms. Bowser approved a Black Lives Matter mural to be painted on the street near the White House, with protesters adding the words “defund the police.”

A year later, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson praised a 2021 police reform report that chastised D.C.’s “harmful over-reliance on policing and incarceration,” and called for a “realignment and reduction of MPD’s size, responsibilities and budget.”

Flash-forward to 2023, and the mayor realizes the magnitude of the problem on her hands. “We don’t have the officers that we need,” Ms. Bowser said last month. “And sadly, we’ve lost 3-400 officers in the last four years… We haven’t had officers in our schools. And we have policies that make it difficult to recruit new officers.”