In the past two weeks, four Washington, D.C., teenagers have died violently, including a mass shooting at a Juneteenth event in the bustling U Street Corridor that wounded a police officer, two civilians, and claimed the life of a 15-year-old boy, who cried out for his mother in his final moments. In the nation’s capital and across the country, Americans are getting too used to unthinkable tragedies like these. It’s time to change course to return peace and safety to our communities.

From 2019 to 2020, murders rose roughly 30%, the single largest year-to-year increase in murders in our nation’s history, and 44% between 2019 and 2021. D.C., which already had a higher murder rate than many other cities, has still seen a rapid climb in violent crime. Murders rose 20% in 2020 from 2019, a trend that has continued into 2022. Aggravated assaults, carjackings, and other categories of violent crime have also shot up dramatically in the past two years. Cities, such as Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C., have seen carjackings double, triple, and even quadruple from 2019 to 2021.