Maybe the times, they are a’ changin’. As with so many aspects of life in these United States one wouldn’t ordinarily want doing so, the crime statistics for the nation’s capital are going nowhere but up.

…Meanwhile, the District is reporting year-over-year spikes in homicides (up 33%), robberies (up 70%) and carjackings (up 108%).

Violent auto thefts have hit historic highs in the nation’s capital. The District recorded 806 carjackings through Sunday. The city is on track to nearly double the record high set last year at 484.

The 225 killings in the District mark the third year in a row that the city has had more than 200 homicides. That hasn’t happened in roughly two decades.

Violent crime overall is up 41% this year.

In a bit of a twist to the way things usually go with big blue city crime, in D.C. even the rarified people who have to be in town on the nation’s business have been taking a walloping on – or off – the mean streets.

Nobody is too important to get car jacked, beaten, or robbed.

A staffer for Sen. Katie Britt (R-Alabama) was robbed at gunpoint on Thursday night, DC Police confirmed Friday.

…Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) was carjacked earlier this month by three people with guns in Southeast.

…On March 25, a staffer for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), was stabbed multiple times near Sol Mexican Grill in the 1300 block H Street Northeast.

…Back in February, Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minnesota) fought off an attacker in her Northeast apartment building using hot coffee.

It’s a helluva town.

The District’s police force is seriously short-handed, and it is really no surprise, all things considered. Who would want to be a cop there? It has one of the most anti-police, uber leftist/progressive city councils in the nation. They have fought tooth and nail to roll back criminal penalties even as they worked with the same ferocity to castrate their own police force.

…The mayor’s Addressing Crime Trends (ACT) Now proposal would change what qualifies as an illegal neck restraint. The mayor said the current rule prohibiting officers from using the hold is written in language so broad that it presents a public safety risk.

Acting Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith echoed the mayor’s concerns. She noted that officers can be accused of violating policy by putting their hand on the back of a suspect’s neck while loading the person into a squad car.

…Chief Smith said the rules and restrictions — adopted in the anti-police fervor that swept the nation after the 2020 murder of George Floyd — have made officers less willing to physically engage suspects, even when those suspects are trying to hurt themselves or other people.

“We have to have a policy environment that allows us to recruit and retain officers and not lose our officers to the surrounding jurisdictions because our policy environment makes them scared to do their job,” Ms. Bowser said at a press conference outside the Metropolitan Police Department’s 4th District station in Northwest.

MPD had 3,316 active duty officers as of last month, its lowest number in half a century.

The end result is that life in D.C. has about become untenable – to the point where the Washington Post felt moved to publish a super helpful “How Not to Get Car-Jacked” guide.

Seriously.

Mayor Bowser has finally woken up to the bad press and the bad boys on the street. She’s going to take the bull by the horns and wrestle refor…just kidding.

She’s gonna nibble around the edges while Rome burns.

DRUG-FREE ZONES, anyone?

I'd rather see carjacking-free zones.

— The Natidude (@TheNatidude) October 23, 2023

I love the “sense” of lawlessness weighing on residents.

…Under Ms. Bowser’s proposal, police could establish “drug-free zones” for five days to prevent loitering and the sale of methamphetamines, opiates and marijuana.

The mayor and police chief noted that open-air drug deals have contributed to the sense of lawlessness weighing on D.C. residents.

Newsflash mayor – it isn’t a “sense.” When it’s a gun in your face or a knife in your ribs it IS “lawlessness.” And no “Crime Free Zone” sign with a red slashed circle will prevent that.

Neither will fines for wearing a mask. Good lord.

Mask on, mask off – liberals can’t make up their minds.

This line makes no sense. You can't criminalize wearing a mask and if the law is "you can't wear a mask while committing a crime" then definitionally it's only an add-on to the underlying crime.

How does this prevent crime? What criminals will refrain from using masks? https://t.co/YSTN9OHL57 pic.twitter.com/1BvzMYLDXm

— DC Crime Facts (@dccrimefacts) October 23, 2023

This is meaningful reform in a blue city mayor kind of way.

So…basically worthless.

All you have to do is bounce the crime data against the prosecution data

Oh. HELLO.

While I prefer to look at charging rates, it's also helpful to see that @USAO_DC prosecution volumes are much lower than they were as recently as 2017.

USA Graves said "we are on pace to charge 6,000 cases this year alone" which would still be well below historic averages. pic.twitter.com/IoWtc57liv

— DC Crime Facts (@dccrimefacts) October 17, 2023

IRT that helpful WaPo avoid a car-jacking guide – I’d say avoid cars. Because the car-jackers make out better than you do.

Very few carjackings actually result in a carjacking conviction.

One implication is that the maximum sentence for carjacking on the books matters a lot less than how the law is enforced in practice.https://t.co/WbZ3JZPFIT pic.twitter.com/ROMzpk8gkf

— DC Crime Facts (@dccrimefacts) October 4, 2023

Maybe a “Car-Jacking Free Zone”?

I’ll bet you anything hashtags are next.

#StopThatRightNow #NaughtyBoys