Crime in Washington, D.C.

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Crime in Washington, D.C., peaked in the early 1990s, when it, was known as the murder capital of the United States. Crime rates have since declined substantially as gentrification has spread across many parts of the city.

[edit] Historic trends

At the peak of the violent crime wave in the early 1990s, Washington, D.C., was known as the murder capital^[1] of the United States. Homicides peaked in 1991 at 482. As the population of the city was just over 600,000 at that time, this meant that the District's homicide rate was 81 per 100,000 inhabitants. Despite the high rate of violent crime, violence was not evenly distributed across the city, but rather was concentrated in specific neighborhoods—Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan, Georgia Ave/Howard University, Logan Circle, Shaw, Le Droit Park, the East End of Downtown (Chinatown), Trinidad, Langston Lane, Florida Ave NE, Montana, and some of the neighborhoods located east of the Anacostia River.

[edit] Gentrification

Gun and overall homicides in Washington, D.C., are concentrated in crime hot spots located in neighborhoods (including Shaw, Sursum Corda, Trinidad, Anacostia, and Congress Heights) with socio-economic disadvantage, while homicide is rare in other neighborhoods.

Since 1993, crime rates in Washington dropped consistently for over ten years. Along with this trend, gentrification has occurred in many neighborhoods across the District, including Adams Morgan, Logan Circle, Columbia Heights, and the East End of Downtown (Chinatown) and is trending eastward. In the past ten years, the number of homicides has been halved—from 399 in 1994 to 195 in 2005. It is believed by many that the gentrification of these neighborhoods was spurred in part by the extension of Metrorail's Green Line to the Shaw, U Street, Columbia Heights, and Petworth neighborhoods during the late 1990s. The revitalization efforts began first in the Adams Morgan and Logan Circle areas and more recently in Columbia Heights.

In 2005, gentrification began to reach Shaw, Le Droit Park, Petworth, Bloomingdale, Eckington, and Trinidad. The transformation of the East End of Downtown/Chinatown into clean, safe areas was aided by the construction of the MCI Center, now Verizon Center, which opened in 1997, and the new Washington Convention Center that opened in 2004 at Mount Vernon Square. As a result, hundreds of brand-new condominiums and apartments were constructed, and many new upscale restaurants, bars, shops, theaters, museums, galleries, and other attractions opened. Prior to around 2000, this was an area of local small businesses, both upscale (including Woodward and Lothrop) and downscale (like the original Sunny's Surplus). Local business in the neighborhood has been replaced by national chain retailers. As a result of gentrification, as well as broader economic forces, home and condo values in Washington, D.C., have skyrocketed.

Defying this gentrification, the Sursum Corda public housing project, located along North Capitol Street between K and M Streets and bordering the Downtown/Chinatown and Le Droit Park neighborhoods, has remained a magnet for drug dealers and crime. However, the D.C. government has begun to tackle this hotspot. The city plans to demolish the public housing and replace it with mixed-income housing. Helping to spur development in this area north of Union Station is the New York Avenue metrorail station that opened in November 2004 and related economic development.

[edit] Tourist areas

Most of the major tourist sections of the city, including the area around the National Mall, downtown, Chinatown, 7th Street/Penn Quarter, Georgetown, Adams-Morgan, and the historic Capitol Hill neighborhood, remain relatively safe parts of town. However, there are still many attractions in the eastern half of the city, such as the historic Eastern Market (the largest continually operated public market in the city), the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Brookland, Union Station, and the National Arboretum on New York Avenue, Frederick Douglas house and museum and the Big Chair, both in Anacostia. There are many historic residential neighborhoods throughout the city.

[edit] Violent crime

[edit] Gang violence

Latino gang violence has plagued the Columbia Heights and Shaw neighborhoods over the years. In 2003, MPD launched a gang-intervention project in those neighborhoods. No Latino gang-related homicides have occurred in Washington, D.C., since 2003.^[2]

[edit] Robbery

On average, there are 11 robberies each day across the District of Columbia, with a sharp increase on Friday and Saturday nights, with up to five an hour. Neighborhoods that are hot spots for robbery include Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant, Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, and Georgetown.^[3]

[edit] Notable incidents

Homicides tripled in number, 1985 to 1990

• January 11, 1992—Tom Barnes, a congressional aide for Alabama Senator Richard Shelby was shot in the head by a teenager, Edward Evans Jr., who lived down the street from Barnes in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Barnes died four days later and was killed nine months after LaShawn Evans had been murdered. Despite overwhelming evidence against Edward Evans Jr., his trial ended in a hung jury with one juror refusing to convict him.^[4] This case led Shelby to propose a referendum to reinstate capital punishment in Washington, D.C.
• November 22, 1994—Bennie Lee Lawson Jr. walked into the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters, where he shot and killed two FBI agents and a police sergeant with a Cobray M-11 9-milimeter semi-automatic pistol before turning the gun on himself.^[5]
• January 5, 2006—New York Times reporter David Rosenbaum was assaulted during a robbery in his Northwest Washington neighborhood by Michael Hamlin and his cousin Percey Jordan; he died two days later from his injuries.^[6]

[edit] Gun-restriction laws

Like many other large cities, Washington, D.C., has enacted a number of strict gun-restriction laws. The Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975 prohibited residents from owning handguns, excluding handgunds registered prior to February 5, 1977. Other local laws prohibit carrying guns (concealed or not), and all guns and ammunition must be registered.^[7]

Critics, citing numerous statistics, have questioned the efficiency of these restrictions. The combination in Washington of strict gun-restriction laws and high levels of gun violence is sometimes used to criticize gun-restriction laws in general as ineffective. However, a significant portion of firearms used in crime are either obtained on the second-hand market or in neighboring states.^[8][9] Results from the ATF's Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative indicate that the percentage of imported guns involved in crimes is tied to the stringency of local firearm laws.^[8] Nonetheless, Washington D.C.'s strict gun restriction laws and its reputation as the former murder capital of the U.S., has caused it to be frequently cited in debates over gun control.^[10] On March 9, 2007, the debate was made moot, at least temporarily, as the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the District's gun laws as violative of the 2nd Amendment.^[11]

Washington, D.C., has tried a number other strategies to deal with gun violence. In 1995, the Metropolitan Police Department conducted Operation Ceasefire, a gun-violence crackdown initiative involving intense gun law enforcement, in conjunction with the United States Attorney's Office.^[12] This initiative resulted in seizure of 282 firearms in its first four months, mainly including 9mms, 380 automatics, .38 caliber and .25 caliber pistols, and revolvers, most of which were purchased in Maryland and Virginia.^[13]

[edit] Crime reduction

[edit] Crime Emergency declaration

On July 11, 2006, Metropolitan Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey declared a crime emergency in the city in response to a rising homicide rate (the city had logged 13 murders since July 1, most notably the killing of a prominent British political activist in Georgetown). The declaration, which allows for more flexible and increased policing in high-crime neighborhoods, has been extended indefinitely beyond its original 30-day period.^[14] The declaration also set an earlier, 10 p.m. curfew for youths.^[15] From July, when the declaration was made, to October, violent crime rates fell by 18%.^[15] The 90-day emergency bill expired in October, with the youth curfew reverting to 11 p.m. On October 18, 2006, the D.C. Council passed a revised crime bill that provided funds for police overtime and to implement a youth development strategy.^[16]

[edit] Other initiatives

Other initiatives and tools used by MPD include:

• ShotSpotter—implemented with support from the FBI, ShotSpotter can detect location of gunshots^[17]
• Surveillance cameras—48 cameras installed in 2006^[17][18]
• Crime mapping—Public website launched in October 2006^[19]

[edit] See also

• Gun politics

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.safestreetsdc.com/subpages/murdercap.html
2. ^ Schwartzman, Paul. "District Briefing", The Washington Post, November 16, 2006.
3. ^ Klein, Allison, Dan Keating. "Liveliest D.C. Neighborhoods Also Jumping With Robberies", The Washington Post, October 13, 2006.
4. ^ Finkel, David. "Street On the Hill", The Washington Post, February 28, 1993.
5. ^ Lewis, Nancy. "Running Down a Gun; Alleged Supplier to D.C. Gangs Goes on Trial", The Washington Post, May 11, 1995.
6. ^ Cauvin, Henri E.. "One Defendant Pleads Guilty in Journalist's Slaying", The Washington Post, September 21, 2006.
7. ^ http://www.nraila.org/statelawpdfs/DCCL.pdf
8. ^ ^{a b} Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative (1998). Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
9. ^ Wintemute, Garen (2000). "Guns and Gun Violence", in Blumstein, Alfred, Joel Wallman: The Crime Drop in America. Cambridge University Press. 
10. ^ http://www.lewrockwell.com/lott/lott31.html
11. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/03/09/gun.ban.ruling/index.html
12. ^ Duggan, Paul. "Area Officials Briefed On D.C. Anti-Gun Effort; U.S. Attorney Asks Other Jurisdictions for Cooperation", The Washington Post, March 11, 1995.
13. ^ Lewis, Nancy. "Officials Say D.C. Anti-Gun Program Seems to Be Working", The Washington Post, October 26, 1995.
14. ^ Klein, Allison. "Police Chief Declares D.C. Crime Emergency", The Washington Post, July 12, 2006.
15. ^ ^{a b} Klein, Allison. "Crackdown Is Yielding Results, Ramsey Says", The Washington Post, October 21, 2006.
16. ^ Silverman, Elissa. "Council Approves Revised Crime Bill", The Washington Post, October 19, 2006.
17. ^ ^{a b} Klein, Allison. "Gunshot Sensors Are Giving D.C. Police Jump on Suspects; System Can Determine Location of Crime", The Washington Post, October 22, 2006.
18. ^ Doolittle, Amy Gary Emerling. "District to set up crime cameras", Washington Times, August 10, 2006.
19. ^ Klein, Allison. "Plotting Crime, Street by Street; D.C. Police Web Site Offers Detailed Views Of Criminal Activity", The Washington Post, October 26, 2006.

[edit] External links

• Metropolitan Police Department
• Crimereports.com - Subscribe to receive Washington DC crime reports free via email
• CrimeinDC.org - Unofficial Google map of DC crime
• Wilber, Del Quentin, Jamie Stockwell (January 1, 2005) Killings in D.C. Fewest Since '86, The Washington Post, p. A01.
• FBI statistics
• Violent Robberies Make It Hard to Ignore D.C.'s Vicious Side - July 12, 2006, Washington Post