Mayor Vince Gray is lucky. He gets picked up and dropped off at his home in the Hillcrest neighborhood by a security detail of plainclothes cops. Otherwise, he might be the victim of a stickup on his way from his car to his door. Gray makes a juicy target. Elderly fellow, might be carrying a wad of cash, probably packing a sweet cellphone.
The mayor’s neighbors could use a security detail, or perhaps a few more cops. Robberies with a gun are up 33 percent in Mr. Gray’s neighborhood so far this year compared with last, according to D.C. police statistics. Assaults with a dangerous weapon, excluding guns, are up 120 percent in the mayor’s Police Service Area 606.
With crime up all around his fenced lot, the mayor comes off as misinformed at best or a flat-out purveyor of fantasies when he proclaims that crime is under control in the nation’s capital. In his charm offensive last month to fend off calls for his resignation because of corruption in his campaign, Gray claimed D.C. was well, in part because crime is low. Actually, it’s on the rise.
“Somebody is shot in D.C. almost every day,” says Ronald “Mo” Moten, a candidate for the Ward 7 council seat. Moten founded Peaceoholics, which sought to make truces between gangs. “Crime in our impoverished neighborhoods is worse. Same assaults. Same robberies. Same stabbings. Politicians don’t pay any attention.”
Apparently Attorney General Irvin Nathan isn’t paying much attention, either. During an appearance on WAMU radio’s politics show last week, Nathan defended his boss and said the city is running in his view “very well, that we have economic development in the city, that education is improving, that crime is down.”
Down? True, homicides are way down to historic lows. But that’s cold comfort when someone sticks the wrong end of a pistol to your head and asks for your wallet.
Gun robberies are up 19 percent across the city: Last year there were 609 by Aug. 5; so far this year, 724 people have been robbed at gunpoint. Violent crime is up 8 percent, according to police statistics.
Crime is dropping, insisted Gray spokesman Pedro Ribeiro, pointing to the decrease in homicides as well as a 17 and 14 percent drop in burglaries and auto thefts respectively.
“D.C. is safer today than is was 10 or 15 years ago, regardless of neighborhood…,” Ribeiro said. “Yes, we still have a long way to go, but the District has made great strides in reducing crime.”
While police statistics do show burglaries and the number stolen cars are way down, theft and theft from cars are up, and crime overall is up 3 percent. From border to border, the city is less safe. Muggers are preying on people with cellphones at all times of the day. People are getting shot in Logan Circle and along U Street. Three people were shot dead last weekend. Antwan Boseman and Terrence Robinson died from bullet wounds in Southeast. Police found Simon Anderson dead early Sunday morning, on Georgia Avenue south of Petworth.
We can’t all have security details, like Mayor Gray, but we sure could use a few more street cops.
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Wednesday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
