Harry Jaffe: Predators on the loose in D.C.?

Imagine, for a few minutes, if the drive-by shooting that killed four young people and wounded others last week on South Capitol Street had taken place in another part of the nation’s capital.

Rather than the far eastern corner of the city by the Prince George’s County line, let’s say the carnage had taken place along South Capitol street a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol dome. Same street, different ‘hood.

Maybe a few interns from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, right off South Capitol, were on their way to the Tune Inn for a beer when a van drove by, a gangbanger poked an assault weapon through the window and mowed down the group.

What if the kids killed last week had been hanging out in front of the CVS at Wisconsin and Brandywine in Upper Caucasia. They had walked the two blocks from Wilson Senior High School, grabbed a Vitamin Water and were talking on the corner when — boom! — the van with guns blazing had passed by.

Maybe it was a crew of suburban kids wasting time on the corner of 29th and M streets in Georgetown. They had had a few beers in Garrett’s, and they were figuring out what to do next when they heard the pop-pop-pop and they started to pile up on one another.

You know where I’m going with this. If the young folks whose lives were taken for no good reason had been white rather than black, the city would be on lockdown. Police Chief Cathy Lanier’s job would be on the line. Mayor Adrian Fenty’s falling re-election prospects would head straight south.

Couldn’t happen here, you say? True, the three people arrested for last week’s carnage had a motive, twisted though it might have been. There was a golden bracelet that was thought to have been lifted from a party. There was an act of vengeance. And another. It can be explained away as another example of black on black crime.

Not so fast. Violent crime is up across the city, according to the police department’s own reports. Last March there were 392 reports of violent crime, including robbery, sex abuse, robbery and assault with a dangerous weapon. Last month the number was 412, for an increase of 5 percent. Assault with a dangerous weapon is up 27 percent. Good news is that robbery is down citywide, but that could rise with the summer heat.

In crime after crime, the perpetrators are well known by the police, the prosecutors and the courts. Read the fine work of my Washington Examiner colleague, Bill Myers, who reports that all three of the suspects in last week’s homicides had been in and out of custody.

Our porous criminal justice system, where juvenile predators who kill on a whim are caught and freed to roam the streets, is the product of our city council’s liberal bent. The only way we will toughen our laws and make streets safe citywide will be when white blood is spilled. Then the politicians will pay, and listen.

E-mail Harry Jaffe at [email protected].

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