This is an interesting story, not the least because of whose bodyguard was involved - Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor - but also because of where it happened with thankfully no one popped but the perp.

It seems two US Marshalls were sitting in their cars outside the justice's house in the early morning of the 5th of July when an enterprising young lad walked up out of the dark. The teenager named Kentrell Flowers then did something really stupid but pretty commonplace for the DC Metro area.

He pulled a gun on one of the marshalls.

OOPS

...The marshals were parked outside Sotomayor’s home in northwest DC on July 5 when Kentrell Flowers, 18, allegedly walked up to one of their cars around 1:15 a.m. and pointed a gun one of the federal agents, the US Marshals Service told The Post.

One of the federal agents drew his weapon and fired several shots at the suspect, with the second officer also firing his weapon at Flowers. 

Flowers, of Southeast DC, was arrested and treated at a local hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.

The justice wasn't home, the marshalls were unharmed, and Mr. Flowers' premature ventilation was attended to at a local hospital no doubt at taxpayer cost.

While that outcome is satisfying all around on its face, it's also the face of the problem in the District of Columbia and the surrounding area - it's frickin' dangerous as hell for everyone, whatever your status in life. And unless you're someone who has a licensed security detail assigned to protect your home and person, Mr. Flowers would have successfully boosted your vehicle and possibly - well, most probably - shot you, perhaps fatally whilst doing so.

Because "private citizen" you cannot be armed for self-protection and Mr. Flowers would no doubt be back roaming the streets within hours had he been caught (as he hit a "somebody's" home this time, they might go tough on him).

...This is just the latest in a series of high profile carjackings of federal agents and VIPs in the nation’s capital.

Last year, Secret Service agents assigned to President Biden’s granddaughter, Naomi, opened fire on a group of people attempting to break into an unmarked Secret Service car. 

...In January, former Trump administration official Mike Gill was fatally wounded by a carjacker as he sat in his vehicle on K Street at about 5:45 p.m.

The calls today have been off the hook but that's every day.

ANOTHER CITIZEN ROBBED AT GUNPOINT: 5000 Bl. of Benning Rd. S.E. @DCPoliceDept on scene investigating an armed robbery with a citizen having their vehicle taken by two individuals both armed with guns. https://t.co/MMgeIqa5sT

— DC REALTIME NEWS (@RealTimeNews10) July 9, 2024

In October, I wrote about how the stats for violent crimes were going through the roof, and it was affecting every demographic.

...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.

Especially with the carjackings. So much so, as I noted, the Washington Post issued a hugely helpful "How Not to Get Carjacked" supplement just as the D.C. City Council voted to lower penalties for carrying, oh, like an illegal gun or carjacking.

Things must really be looking up for the safety and security of the residents of the city, that council members feel they can move definitively in this direction. This is the second vote on these proposed reforms and all that remains is Mayor Muriel Bowers’ approval.

The Washington, D.C., city council on Tuesday voted to dramatically reform the city’s criminal code, reducing penalties for offenses including illegal gun possession and carjacking, even as D.C. has seen a spike in homicides in recent years.

These sorts of permissive attitudes bear fruit as far as repeat offenders and moving up into more violent crimes. No one in the D.C. hierarchy, either the city government or the court system, seems remotely interested in readjusting their attitudes towards charging and incarceration.

Judges are some of the worst offenders. This case is from May of this year.

18 year old sprays Washington DC neighborhood with 26 rounds from an AR-15. (He's shooting at a car with 4 people in it but misses.) DC judge frees suspect on bond. He's out right now. From @DailyMail: https://t.co/pl1mMuZNXd pic.twitter.com/m31kYsASI7

— Byron York (@ByronYork) May 14, 2024

The US Attorney's Office routinely refuses to press charges or downgrades serious crimes, if they do anything at all.

New court documents show that the defendant accused of shooting at a MPD officer in May admitted to being the shooter.

Remember this defendant had been previously arrested with illegal guns twice but the USAO didn't press charges. pic.twitter.com/wMPa2g56LK

— DC Crime Facts (@dccrimefacts) July 7, 2024

I can only assume this particular attorney in the USAO has not yet been a carjacking or shooting victim. Or maybe he has, and white guilt has taken over. In either case, they had multiple opportunities to get a repeat weapons offender off the street and did nothing.

It happens with alarming frequency.

Here's another DC shooting suspect who was free after the US Attorney's Office refused to prosecute an earlier arrest for carrying an illegal gun.

Over the last 2 years the USAO declined, dropped or reduced to misdemeanor 2,262 gun cases.

They have faced no accountability. https://t.co/GkkdVfPBO2 pic.twitter.com/5tkTMkje2u

— DC Crime Facts (@dccrimefacts) July 6, 2024

So the USAO won't hammer the felons who carry illegally, but God help the law-abiding citizen who has a weapon if he dares to have one in the District.

Flat out lie by @KaivanShroff , let's explain why in a #2A🧵

DC has most restrictive gun laws in US & lowest rates of legal guns.

Gifford's campaign gives DC "A" rating every year.

It had more mass shootings AND more "normal" gun homicide than any other jurisdiction! https://t.co/IJ8eAXIAeO pic.twitter.com/gtuFmcfqnT

— Andrew Follett (@AndrewCFollett) April 12, 2023

DC gun regs are so restrictive the Giffords gun-grabbing bunch love them.

Last year, the District had to pay out over $5M to settle a lawsuit from 6 legal gun owners who'd been arrested and had their 2d Amendment rights violated thanks to zealous enforcement of D.C.'s campaign against legal firearms.

D.C. will pay $5.1 million as part of a class-action settlement with gun owners who were arrested under laws that have since been found to violate the Second Amendment, according to the settlement agreement.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth gave preliminary approval to the settlement agreement on Monday following years of litigation. Lamberth had previously ruled in September 2021 that D.C. arrested, jailed, prosecuted and seized guns from six people “based on an unconstitutional set of laws” and violated their Second Amendment rights.

The laws — a ban on carrying handguns outside the home and others that effectively banned nonresidents from carrying guns at all in D.C. — have since been struck down in federal court. They were part of a “gun control regime that completely banned carrying handguns in public,” Lamberth wrote in the 2021 ruling.

Sometimes it's easier when you're an 18 year-old carjacker, who doesn't have to worry about any of the #rulez, you know?

They only apply to law-abiding citizens.