OAN Roy Francis
UPDATED 8:57 AM PT – Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee has offered a simple solution to the rising homicide rates in Washington D.C.: “We need to keep violent people in jail.”
The Police Chief was speaking a press conference alongside Mayor Muriel Bowser when he was asked, since homicides in D.C. had risen 30% so far this year, if he expected the Council of the District of Columbia to alter its approach to crime.
“What we got to do, if we really want to see homicides go down, is keep bad guys with guns in jail,” he answered. “Because when they’re in jail, they can’t be in communities shooting people. So when people talk about what we gonna do different, or what we should do different, what we need to do different, that’s the thing that we need to do different. We need to keep violent people in jail. Right now, the average homicide suspect has been arrested 11 times prior to them committing a homicide. That is a problem.”
In February, representative Angie Craig (D-Minn.) had also called out the city’s elected officials after being assaulted by a homeless man. She called out the officials’ soft stance on crime, and the repeat offender problem that is plaguing the nation’s capital.
“I got attacked by someone who the District of Columbia has not prosecuted fully over the course of almost a decade, over the course of 12 assaults before mine that morning,” she had said. “I mean, it wasn’t even in every instance that he got 10 days or 30 days. Many times, the charges were completely dropped before any justice was achieved at all.”
One of the other topics discussed at the press conference was the failure of the D.C. City Council’s attempt to soften the penalties of violent crimes. The City Council had sought to reduce the maximum penalties on violent crimes such as burglaries, robberies and car jackings. The bill would also abolish minimum sentences for such crimes.
Mayor Bowser had vetoed the bill in January, but the city council overrode her veto. However, after the House of Representatives voted to block it and President Joe Biden said he would not veto their decision, the bill was withdrawn.
Washington D.C. has seen a steep increase in violent crime, reaching 200 murders in consecutive years since 2003.
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