Violent Crime Is Surging in D.C. This Year

Image source: The Wall Street Journal

From The Wall Street Journal:

In Washington Highlands, a chronically violent neighborhood in the nation’s capital, a dozen or so children who often meet up at a community center recently discussed what to do when gunfire erupts. Such lessons carry added urgency, facilitators say, amid a jump in shootings. One left an 18-year-old dead near the center in September. 

In gentrified Shaw, where trendy restaurants dot blocks with condos listed for more than $1 million, unusually high levels of gun violence have longtime residents feeling under siege. As some businesses struggle or think of leaving, a prominent developer warns massive investment is “going down the tubes.”

Surging violent crime this year has spread fear and frustration across the District of Columbia, as police here struggle to curb the bloodshed at a time when many U.S. cities are seeing double-digit declines in homicides.

The district has had 216 homicides this year, 38% more than at this point in 2022—and more than any full year from 2004 to 2020, police data show. By contrast, killings are down this year in big cities from coast to coast: by 24% in Los Angeles, 19% in Houston, 18% in Philadelphia, 12% in Chicago, and 11% in New York City.