Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is happening in Washington DC? Baltimore has 15 fewer murders this year and NYC has 44 more murders and 7.4 million more people.

CompStat NYC
https://www.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/crime_statistics/cs-en-us-city.pdf

‘I want my child back’: Surge in D.C. shootings left 20 dead in May
A spike in violence pushed the city’s year-to-date homicide count to 69 as of May 31, nearly equaling the total for the same five-month period in 2024.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/06/03/dc-homicides-surge-shootings-may/

Baltimore has been hollowed out. There are a lot fewer targets.

You understand that Baltimore has a lower crime rate per capita, correct?

Baltimore is a much poorer city as well, which makes its lower murder rate even more impressive.

You think even 1/4 of the crime in Baltimore gets reported? LOl!

Anonymous wrote:Not good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boston has 12 murders so far this year and around 40,000 less people than DC. Incredible.

There's one big difference between Boston and DC....

What is that (what is the difference)?

Poor people, no education, no hope, generational poverty. I lived in the hood when I first moved here. Conflict is what they are engaged every waking hour. The ones who would like to get out, don't have the money. They live in stress, anger. Gave me anxiety.
I didn't even mention mental health/SN. Crime is the norm.
Super messed up, but it was created by society, politics, history.
Poor in US, any race, seem more messed up that many other places.

There are poor people in every city. In many cities there are many poor immigrants who come here with nothing but trauma and even they don’t commit crimes like the urban folks here. We should all stop making excuses for these people “oh but they’re poor and their parents were poor, what do you expect” and actually hold them all accountable to basic standards. When you hold people accountable, they will change their behavior. When you make excuses for them, they won’t.

I agree with this. I'm liberal. But I've lived in DC for 20 years.

It's not just poverty here. There is something else going on, and it's psychological, and it cannot be addressed with social services and "violence interruptors." I'm glad community services has worked in Baltimore, but in DC, when solutions like that have been implemented, there is a lot of grift. Look at the Trayon White situation -- he was taking bribes from "violence interruptors" in exchange for using his power to funnel more contracts to these groups. Who were bribing a public official. It's the most DC scandal you could possibly come up with, and Trayon getting re-elected after being expelled from office is the most DC consequence.

So yeah, it's not just poverty. It's apathy, it's total disregard for other people, it's a belief that the system is never going to work for you, so you might as well exploit and abuse the system. There is little faith.

DC needs a top to bottom overhaul of public officials and a different attitude about community and safety. We need a mayor and council who places the safety and security of citizens (all citizens, of all colors and backgrounds) above feeling sorry for criminals. Guess what, most of the victims of violent crime in DC are also poor and black, can we focus on helping them instead of wringing our hands over how racism and poverty MADE someone commit murder/rape/armed robbery? Lots of poor people don't become violent criminals. Most of them, actually. Why not protect and defend the many law abiding people in this city instead of allowing ourselves to be held hostage by a small minority of violent a$$holes who, yes, may have had hard lives but are now making everyone else's life miserable as a result? Reward people for following the law and being kind to their neighbors, and hold those who can't accountable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would bet that some of this has to do with multi-generational lead exposure. Think about all of the cities that have the highest rates of lead- NYC, Baltimore, Chicago, Philly, some parts of FL and Ohio. A significant portion of the SE and Western US didnt have lead pipe infrastructure.

There are a couple of posters here who cant help themselves talking about it being a black person problem, but you wont ever dig any further than that because it fits the narrative in your head. And you can look at all the cities with higher crime rates and its some of the same.

"Cities where people were drinking lead-contaminated water in the early 20th century had, on average, nearly 25% higher violent crime rates than similar cities with iron pipes or non-corrosive water, according to a 2016 study published in the journal Explorations in Economic History. Importantly, that study looked at the crime rates 20 years after the pipes were initially installed in these cities—when the generation of exposed kids began reaching adulthood.

And in the District, this is incredibly relevant, because between 2000 and 2004, D.C. experienced one of the worst lead in water crises the U.S. has ever seen. Four times more kids in the District had high levels of lead in their blood during this time, compared to the years before the water treatment problem. Miscarriages and fetal death spiked, too.
Meanwhile, DC Water’s plan for a “Lead-Free DC” has nowhere near enough funding to meet its goal of eliminating the District’s lead service lines by 2030; at its current rate the task would take another 30 years. Only about 30% of D.C. kids get tested for lead, and even fewer are screened on time (all children should have two tests before the age of two!).

If we’re interested in a safer, healthier future for the District, our conversations about crime prevention cannot continue to leave out lead."

But its feelings and prayers right?

These cities have also suffered from decreasing air pollution. Cleaner air is making people commit crimes.

Correlation isn't causation.

Anonymous wrote:I would bet that some of this has to do with multi-generational lead exposure. Think about all of the cities that have the highest rates of lead- NYC, Baltimore, Chicago, Philly, some parts of FL and Ohio. A significant portion of the SE and Western US didnt have lead pipe infrastructure.

There are a couple of posters here who cant help themselves talking about it being a black person problem, but you wont ever dig any further than that because it fits the narrative in your head. And you can look at all the cities with higher crime rates and its some of the same.

"Cities where people were drinking lead-contaminated water in the early 20th century had, on average, nearly 25% higher violent crime rates than similar cities with iron pipes or non-corrosive water, according to a 2016 study published in the journal Explorations in Economic History. Importantly, that study looked at the crime rates 20 years after the pipes were initially installed in these cities—when the generation of exposed kids began reaching adulthood.

And in the District, this is incredibly relevant, because between 2000 and 2004, D.C. experienced one of the worst lead in water crises the U.S. has ever seen. Four times more kids in the District had high levels of lead in their blood during this time, compared to the years before the water treatment problem. Miscarriages and fetal death spiked, too.
Meanwhile, DC Water’s plan for a “Lead-Free DC” has nowhere near enough funding to meet its goal of eliminating the District’s lead service lines by 2030; at its current rate the task would take another 30 years. Only about 30% of D.C. kids get tested for lead, and even fewer are screened on time (all children should have two tests before the age of two!).

If we’re interested in a safer, healthier future for the District, our conversations about crime prevention cannot continue to leave out lead."

But its feelings and prayers right?

Anonymous wrote:We should have picked our own cotton.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is happening in Washington DC? Baltimore has 15 fewer murders this year and NYC has 44 more murders and 7.4 million more people.

CompStat NYC
https://www.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/crime_statistics/cs-en-us-city.pdf

‘I want my child back’: Surge in D.C. shootings left 20 dead in May
A spike in violence pushed the city’s year-to-date homicide count to 69 as of May 31, nearly equaling the total for the same five-month period in 2024.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/06/03/dc-homicides-surge-shootings-may/

Baltimore has been hollowed out. There are a lot fewer targets.

You understand that Baltimore has a lower crime rate per capita, correct?

Baltimore is a much poorer city as well, which makes its lower murder rate even more impressive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is happening in Washington DC? Baltimore has 15 fewer murders this year and NYC has 44 more murders and 7.4 million more people.

CompStat NYC
https://www.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/crime_statistics/cs-en-us-city.pdf

‘I want my child back’: Surge in D.C. shootings left 20 dead in May
A spike in violence pushed the city’s year-to-date homicide count to 69 as of May 31, nearly equaling the total for the same five-month period in 2024.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/06/03/dc-homicides-surge-shootings-may/

Baltimore has been hollowed out. There are a lot fewer targets.

Anonymous wrote:What is happening in Washington DC? Baltimore has 15 fewer murders this year and NYC has 44 more murders and 7.4 million more people.

CompStat NYC
https://www.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/crime_statistics/cs-en-us-city.pdf

‘I want my child back’: Surge in D.C. shootings left 20 dead in May
A spike in violence pushed the city’s year-to-date homicide count to 69 as of May 31, nearly equaling the total for the same five-month period in 2024.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/06/03/dc-homicides-surge-shootings-may/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC has a juvenile crime problem but unfortunately all of the approaches to 'fix' the issue are likely to be long-term and very expensive. Everyone wants a quick fix in 1-2 election cycles, but the problems are generational problems, systemic problems, educational problems. None of which are a quick or an easy fix.

It’s 400,000,000 guns. One for every man, woman, and child with plenty left to spare. The DMV is awash in illegal guns. No one is safe in D.C.

What’s the fix? Where has it worked?

Why can’t we be more like Nordic countries? They don’t have these problems in Sweden.

Not sure if serious...

Why not? What is so different about the US?

If we got rid of the guns we would be exactly the same as the Netherlands.

Because it’s impossible to get rid of the guns at this point. There are like 100MM guns in circulation. Maybe if we outlaw ammunition or tax it at 10000%…though people would figure out a way to make their own.