Two days after the Crime Emergency (should there be an exclamation point there?) is announced, the Post is following up on their earlier look at Mall Robberies:
The attacks on the Mall happened beneath a stand of cherry trees late Tuesday, when the robbers pounced twice along the south slope of the Washington Monument. The holdups followed three highly publicized robberies in May in another area of the Mall where violence had been rare. No arrests have been made in the earlier cases, and police said yesterday that the same people might be responsible.
With the Mall under siege, the murder and robbery and assault rates significantly higher than they’ve been, does this mean we’ll finally, as a community begin to address the root issues of crime in DC? Are we going to start talking about family cohesion? Failing schools? Poverty? Abuse? Drugs?
Maybe.
Adrian Fenty has put up his Public Safety brief (PDF) and Linda Cropp has displayed hers as well (HTML), but both seem to be heavy on community policing, and emergency response instead of dealing with crime at its root levels. Marie Johns’ website doesn’t seem to acknowledge we even have a crime problem, which is a shame. Her blog also hasn’t been updated since the end of June, which is also a shame.
Should we be looking to the leadership of the city for answers about crime? Or should we be looking back into our community for the answers?
Discuss.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.
