With two weeks remaining in 2010, the number of homicides in the nation’s capital stands at 106. It’s quite possible that D.C. could finish out the year with fewer than 110 murders. This would be something to celebrate, a holiday present for Mayor Vince Gray, Police Chief Cathy Lanier, the homicide detectives and more importantly, the people who live east of Rock Creek or the Anacostia River. For that is where all but two of the year’s homicides took place. But beyond the great news on homicides, we are in the midst of a crime wave. More on that later.
Let’s put the homicides into perspective, assuming we don’t top 110. Last year the city recorded 132 homicides, so we can count 22 fewer deaths by violent means. In 2000 the police department’s figures show there were 242 homicides, which means there will be 132 fewer. Huge! In 1991, our most bloody year, there were 479 homicides. We are 369 to the good. More huge!
Kudos to the cops. No matter how you slice and dice the homicide numbers, were are in much better shape than last year and far better than 1989, when then-Mayor Marion Barry uttered one of his more memorable lines: “This is not Dodge City.”
No, it was worse.
No doubt Gray and Lanier will hold a press conference to make sure we know that homicide rates are falling. Give credit where credit is due, even if the lowering homicide rate is in some part because of demographics, in that many poor people have been forced out of D.C.; or incarceration, because many bad guys and girls have been jailed; or general trends toward less violence, which has helped lower homicide rates nationwide.
I would be remiss if I didn’t give props to our homicide detectives, who are arresting more suspects. Prosecutors are charging more murders, and judges are handing down tough sentences. It’s too early to say that talking to cops is no longer considered snitching, but we are headed toward higher levels of trust between police and citizens.
Unfortunately, the falling homicide rates don’t tell the full story of crime in the nation’s capital. Over the last month, compared with the same period last year, overall violent crime is up 11 percent. Robberies are through the roof: Without a gun, they jumped 29 percent, from 237 to 305; with a gun they increased from 113 to 117.
Theft from cars is rampant. Last year from mid-November to mid-Decmeber, there were 607 thefts. This year the number is 901, for a 48 percent increase. Stolen autos is up from 304 to 311.
So do we feel more safe? Not if we live in the 7th Police District, on the hills across the Anacostia River, where robbery with a gun is up 100 percent, from 18 to 36. Sex abuse is up 700 percent, from one to eight cases.
True, we can celebrate fewer homicides in 2011. But Washington is still too unsafe for too many residents, just as it has been for decades.
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Tuesday and Friday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
