D.C. Police Chief offers simple solution to rising crime rates

OAN Roy Francis
UPDATED 8:57 AM PT – Wednesday, March 8, 2023

Robert Contee of the Metropolitan Police Department offered an easy solution to Washington D.C.’s rising murder rates: “We need to keep violent people in jail.”

While speaking at a press conference with Mayor Muriel Bowser, the Police Chief was being asked if the Council of the District of Columbia would change its approach to crime since the number of homicides had increased by 30% this year.

“What we got to do, if we really want to see homicides go down, is keep bad guys with guns in jail,” He answered. “Because when they’re in jail, they can’t be in communities shooting people. So when people talk about what we gonna do different, or what we should do different, what we need to do different, that’s the thing that we need to do different. We need to keep violent people in jail. Right now, the average homicide suspect has been arrested 11 times prior to them committing a homicide. That is a problem.”

Representative Angie Craig, a Democratic representative from Minnesota (D), had called out officials of the city after she was attacked by an unmarried man. After being attacked by a homeless man, Angie Craig (D-Minn.) called out officials for their soft stance regarding crime and the problem of repeat offenders that plagues the capital.

“I got attacked by someone who the District of Columbia has not prosecuted fully over the course of almost a decade, over the course of 12 assaults before mine that morning,” Sie had stated. “I mean, it wasn’t even in every instance that he got 10 days or 30 days. Many times, the charges were completely dropped before any justice was achieved at all.”

Another topic that was discussed at the conference was D.C.’s failure to ease the penalty for violent crimes. City Council wanted to lower the maximum penalty for violent crimes like carjackings, burglaries and robberies. This bill would abolish the minimum sentence for these crimes.

The bill was vetoed by Mayor Bowser in January. However, the council overrode Bowser’s veto. After the House of Representatives had voted to stop it, and President Joe Biden declared he wouldn’t veto their decision; the bill was then withdrawn.

Washington D.C. witnessed a dramatic increase in violent crimes, with 200 deaths in the last two years.