Two more people were shot to death over the weekend in the nation’s capital. A taxi driver took a bullet near the entrance to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, on the city’s eastern edge. A guy from Prince George’s County was gunned down close to Howard University Saturday night. Cops said he traded punches with another man in a dispute over a woman; the guy pulled out a pistol and plugged him. The spin from the media and the police department is that this is good news, relatively speaking. These two homicides bring the 2011 number to 95. Compared to last year this time, when the city tallied 106, we’re ahead of the game. Yes, D.C. can count 11 fewer murders! Whooppee!
Really? We’re going to make ourselves feel good that “only” 95 people have lost their lives by violent means this year?
In the week leading up to last weekend’s bloodshed, six people had been killed by guns or knives, bringing the week’s total to eight. But it’s all good, because we can count fewer dead than last year.
The aging bard Bob Dylan says it all in a recent song:
“Cold blooded killer stomp into town
Cop car’s blinkin’, something bad goin’ down.
Buildings are crumblin, in the neighborhood.
But there’s nothing to worry about, cause it’s all good. It’s all good.”
D.C. cops know one reason it’s not all good. The Metropolitan Police Department has fewer and fewer cops — 3,800 is the current count. There are times when large swaths of D.C. are literally copless. Check out this tale from a patrol officer in 6D.
He showed up to roll call for the midnight shift on Saturday, October 8. A handful of officers were present. When the sergeant deployed his “troops,” he had three. He put each in a scout car to patrol an entire police district.
“You cannot do anything proactive,” the veteran tells me in a lengthy interview. “There’s no one to back you up. If you see someone with a gun or run into something in progress — a drug deal, a domestic — you’re at a disadvantage.”
Luckily, the shift was relatively quiet.
“That night was a drastic situation,” he says, “but it wasn’t a one-time thing. We’re often strapped for officers.”
Peer beneath the fig leaf about dropping homicide numbers and you might be confronted with some uncomfortable facts, listed on the MPD crime reports. Robberies are up six percent this year, at 2,298. Robberies with a gun are down, but the MPD still counts 860. Violent crime is down three percent, but when you add theft, burglary and stolen cars, the city’s crime rate is up three percent over last year.
And in Anacostia’s Sixth and Seventh police districts, the blood runs steady. At 42 so far this year, homicides are have decreased from last year, but the number is still unacceptable. Life in Anacostia is way too cheap, cops too few. Not much to celebrate — not all good.
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Tuesday and Friday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Editor’s note: Harry Jaffe’s Tuesday, October 25 column reported the number of homicides in D.C.’s Seventh Police District at 44 and said the number has increased from last year. The correct number is 18, and the homicide rate has decreased by 50 percent. Jaffe was referring to homicides east of the Anacostia River, which encompasses both the Sixth and Seventh Police Districts. The number of homicides for both districts this year stands at 42, a drop from last year. Violent crime in both districts has changed little from last year.
