[Federalist] After experiencing years of rising crime, Washington, D.C. Democrats appear to have discovered that going soft on criminals in the name of "social justice" isn’t such a good idea.On Monday, Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, introduced legislation overturning several so-called "police reform" measures the city implemented in response to the May 2020 death of George Floyd.
According to DCist, the Addressing Crime Trends (ACT) Now Act would not only walk back "restrictions to use-of-force, vehicular pursuits, and body-worn camera footage requirements," it would also implement new measures designed to crack down on crime. Among these are provisions creating "new penalties for organized retail theft, allow[ing] the police chief to declare certain areas ’drug-free zones,'" and making it once again "illegal to wear a mask for committing a crime."
Bowser’s push for increased policing appears to be in response to the skyrocketing number of homicides and other crimes recorded throughout the nation’s capital. Last month, The Washington Post reported that D.C. recorded its 200th homicide with three months left in 2023, marking the first time the city has documented more than 200 homicides before October since 1997. The number of homicides throughout D.C. had "generally trended downward, staying below 200 from 2004 to 2020," but picked back up again in 2021 with 226 killings.
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