The two thugs who relieved Julia Corker of her car in D.C.’s Penn Quarter the first week of December were a tad too casual.
One asked the daughter of U.S. Sen. Bob Corker for directions, the other threw her out of the car, and both took off with her SUV. They drove across the Maryland line to Seat Pleasant to get a burger. Police saw the car, confronted the suspects, brought Julia Corker in to ID them, and cuffed them. They are awaiting extradition to D.C. She’s OK.
The Metropolitan Police Department touts its statistics that show crime is down in the nation’s capital. Ask Julia Corker.
It’s not fair to base crime trends on one event. Predators abound in any big city. But Julia Corker’s brush with carjackers in downtown D.C. raises a question: Are our streets as safe as the police brass would have us believe?
Police Chief Cathy Lanier can rightly and proudly report that homicides are on the decline. Last year at this time, police reported 177 homicides; the number of murders this year is 135, for a drop of nearly 24 percent. Hallelujah!
But is the city more safe?
Not for gay men and women. The political furor over legislation that would legalize gay marriage in D.C. seems to have brought out the worst in many people. The MPD reports that hate crimes — read: attacks based on sexual orientation — are nearing 40 for the year. The number of attacks on gays have increased especially east of the Anacostia River in Wards 7 and 8, where opposition to the marriage act is most intense.
Not for the woman in Dupont Circle who was attacked and allegedly raped in her apartment the last week of November. The woman told police she was sleeping and awoke to find a man in her apartment. He attacked her, lifted a laptop and fled.
Police have arrested a suspect in the alleged rape, and they nabbed another who confessed to 34 break-ins, but folks in the neighborhood are freaked out. Violent crime is up 28 percent in their cozy corner, burglaries are up 117 percent, robbery with a gun is up a whopping 500 percent. The crimes have spiked around 21st and N Streets, between Dupont Circle and the West End.
Ask the residents of Borderstan if crime is down. I have written in the past about the unsafe streets between Dupont Circle and Shaw. How about the recent robbery of a woman at 16h and U Streets, right across from MPD’s 3rd District headquarters? Two men jumped out of a car they had supposedly carjacked earlier in the day and robbed a woman in broad daylight.
The police made an arrest in that case, too.
My point here is not to malign the cops. To the contrary, they often do a great job. But it’s crucial that the police brass level with the citizens on the increases, rather than the decreases, in crime.
The truth will set us free and actually make our streets safer — for real.
