(LibertySociety.com) – Violent crime has been on the rise in Washington D.C. for many years now, including murder and other crimes like carjacking and robberies. The City Council was forced to pass emergency legislation to address the rise in crime, despite pushback from criminal justice reformers. Keeping violent offenders in pre-trial detention was included in the emergency legislation to prevent re-offending. The measures were initially intended to expire in October, but the Council voted to keep them in place until the spring of 2024.
Texas Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar was carjacked at gunpoint in October as he arrived at his apartment but was not physically harmed. On November 29, an off-duty FBI agent was carjacked by two people in the middle of the day. The offenders stole the official FBI vehicle and abandoned it near D.C.’s Lincoln Park area about 30 minutes away from where the carjacking occurred. The agent was not harmed during the carjacking and two suspects have been identified by authorities. No arrests have been made and the investigation is still ongoing.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, there have been over 900 carjackings this year, which has more than doubled for the entirety of 2022. Seventy-seven percent of the carjackings this year involved a firearm. Lawmakers and other employees have not been spared during this year’s explosion of crime in the nation’s capital. One of Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul’s staffers was brutally stabbed near the Capitol by a man who had been released from prison just 24 hours earlier. Murders have also increased by 28 percent since 2022. Shootings are on the rise as well, with a 20 percent increase since last year. The emergency legislation passed by the D.C. City Council included an increase in penalties for firing a gun in public. Offenders will now face up to two years in prison for the crime, with self-defense as the only exception. The news of an FBI agent being carjacked will likely be used by Republicans to blast Democrats for their calls to reimagine policing in the United States.
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