I really appreciate your writing on DC crime. I’m a DCPS teacher and resident and I find the parallels between DCPS’s management of schools and discipline and how MPD does things really illuminating.
I also find your data driven approach to be refreshing. Lots of ideology around policing just like in education and
To me all of this emergency safety bills sound like a piecemeal attempt to correct very few issues that the RCCA sought to overhaul.
So instead of looking at data for sentencing practices and getting all bent out of shape over carjacking, we have now shifted to using data on police allocations which we could have done anyway.
But then again, it’s unlikely the MPD or the Mayor will do the necessary changing in policing to make us safer and instead play in the political sandbox of performative bills that still don’t change the way we can clear up our issues.
It’s amazing to me that a third term mayor sucks this badly.
We shouldn't overlook the fact that when the council made the explicit decision to cut the size of the police force in 2020, the stated reason was that these areas were "overpoliced." If we need more police, we should at least acknowledge that and fund it accordingly. Not cut the whole force because of the claim eastern areas of the city are overpoliced, then pull officers out of the western areas because because of the claim eastern areas are underpoliced.
Mayor Bowser and Mayor Adrian Fenty are part of the same political coalition that is often branded as the Green Team. The only time they lost a Mayoral election in the last 16 years is when Ward 7 CM Vincent Gray defeated Adrian Fenty in 2010 (before then losing to Muriel Bowser in 2014). In terms of geographic support and donor base the Green Team is a pretty consistent coalition in DC politics though 2022 was less racially polarized than previous elections.
I really appreciate your writing on DC crime. I’m a DCPS teacher and resident and I find the parallels between DCPS’s management of schools and discipline and how MPD does things really illuminating.
I also find your data driven approach to be refreshing. Lots of ideology around policing just like in education and
Thank you! There definitely seem to be a lot of similar problems in DC's government agencies.
This is great, really interesting read. Now, how do we get Mayor Bowser to read this substack
You do amazing work. Thank you.
To me all of this emergency safety bills sound like a piecemeal attempt to correct very few issues that the RCCA sought to overhaul.
So instead of looking at data for sentencing practices and getting all bent out of shape over carjacking, we have now shifted to using data on police allocations which we could have done anyway.
But then again, it’s unlikely the MPD or the Mayor will do the necessary changing in policing to make us safer and instead play in the political sandbox of performative bills that still don’t change the way we can clear up our issues.
It’s amazing to me that a third term mayor sucks this badly.
We shouldn't overlook the fact that when the council made the explicit decision to cut the size of the police force in 2020, the stated reason was that these areas were "overpoliced." If we need more police, we should at least acknowledge that and fund it accordingly. Not cut the whole force because of the claim eastern areas of the city are overpoliced, then pull officers out of the western areas because because of the claim eastern areas are underpoliced.
I'm pretty familiar with DC's local politics but got lost with the "green team" terminology. What do you mean by that?
Mayor Bowser and Mayor Adrian Fenty are part of the same political coalition that is often branded as the Green Team. The only time they lost a Mayoral election in the last 16 years is when Ward 7 CM Vincent Gray defeated Adrian Fenty in 2010 (before then losing to Muriel Bowser in 2014). In terms of geographic support and donor base the Green Team is a pretty consistent coalition in DC politics though 2022 was less racially polarized than previous elections.
Oops - my kid hit submit. Meant to add that I always appreciate when actual data is presented honestly around tough issues.