Is there a word for the kind of zealous magic thinking Mendo is displaying? I get that the Council and DC Justice Lab are a hive mind, but there is seemingly no awareness that top of the ticket Ds were not going to tank their own careers for a trifling city council. Do they not grasp how many city councils there are? That they passed the Cuba resolution instead of pulling the bill before the House vote and after the Congresswoman had been mugged was astonishing and telling. It is as though they are kids larping as a Model UN rather than legislators responsible for a city, budgets, etc. We had a control board not long ago and they seem to be actively courting the conditions that led to it. So cringe. |
+1 I’ve reached the conclusion that the DC Councik must be abolished in favor of a more professional city management. By the way, should we make any progress to the Statehood, the only way I’d vote for it is if like VT and WY, our representatives only get paid for the sitting time (4 months not a year). Of course that would mean they would be even more open to corruption so is a no go. Given all that, we are small enough to practice a Swiss-style democracy, put it all to the people. Provided the idiotic law that allow you to bus and house your own constituents is also rejected. Which it think it hopefully will be — what a laughingstock! |
“Performative” was the dead give away that you do love the current Council.
Chuck is right and isn’t a coward. |
This. Some aspects are down, others are up. Car jacking and murders. And the people committing them are not being prosecuted because they’re underage and the city is soft on crime because essentially the attitude is “we deserve to be flooded with crime because of historical wrongs and incarceration is not fair.” |
And the Council only wants to make the bad worse. I guess we deserve it. |
The current penalty for carjacking is 40 years. Under the new guidelines it would be 24 years. Do you really think a carjacker is thinking, oh, I will do more of it after the new law is passed because reasons? And to compare, the new and old DC guidelines are harsher than most GOP districts around the country. So this whole thing is just gaslighting. |
If it's gaslighting, why are they trying to lower the max? The reason to lower the max is to lower the actual sentences that are pleaded to. This will absolultely increase crime. |
It had nothing to do w maximums. For me a max shouldn’t exceed 20 for anything. It’s about no minimums and deliberate flooding of the judicial system so there’s no incentive nor possibility to ever prosecute convict and lock up anyone. |
It’s not just gaslighting. And this city, with its existing approach to prosecuting crimes (not great) and already overburdened court system, and even with new funding for staff, would defacto legalize quality of life crimes, as the bill would allow criminals to receive jury trials for misdemeanors. I mean you’ll simply have cases tossed out. So package theft (not ever caught anyway), theft, assault, CVS robberies, all this stuff will just increase without punishment. I am from DC. Are you? You ever tried to get a permit for a house? Ever dealt with DCRA? This city is filled with incompetence. It’s filled with crime. It’s filled with idealistic, urbanist yuppies who think they should just allow themselves to be punched in the face because “that’s what they deserve” for buying a $1M row house in a rough area. It’s a weird place. I hate trump and his acolytes. I don’t like social conservatism, but I also don’t like virtue signaling, weak on crime folks on the city council who propose “alternative” criminal justice solutions like useless violence interruptors and crime bills that lower penalties for violent crime and let criminals out earlier. I wish we had a socially liberal city, but with a strict policy on tackling crime. We can’t just sit back and be thankful for the Fenty’s, who came before and allowed for the development of this city to help increase its quality of life. There are too many weak on crime folks who put being woke above public safety. |
Agree. I would just add that violence interrupters and similar initiatives are not merely do-gooder things gone useless or bad. They are a major source of funding for a whole bunch of people. Follow that consulting $$$ and a disturbing picture of special interests emerges. We’ll only get more fiascos like the national embarrassment of a crime bill if this continues unchecked |