The common refrain of pro-criminal, pro-criminal justice reform advocates is that no one can “prosecute or arrest our way” out of crime. The more you think about it, the less that “logic” makes sense.

The latest to parrot this line was Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb, who said on Tuesday, “We as a city and a community need to be much more focused on prevention and surrounding young people and their families with resources if we want to be safer in the long run. We cannot prosecute and arrest our way out of it.”