I spent the summer of 1980 selling books door to door for the Southwestern Book Company in the great state of West Virginia. One weekend, a fellow salesman and I traveled to Washington, D.C., where we toured as many of the Smithsonian museums as time permitted.
Being on a tight budget, we spent the night at the Lincoln Memorial parking lot in my 1972 Nova. After sunrise, we washed our hair and brushed our teeth in the memorial’s bathroom.
It was spring break in 2005 when my wife and I packed up the family’s 1998 Dodge Grand Caravan for a vacation to our nation’s capital with our three children — Jacob, Ethan, and Abby.
We stayed in a downtown D.C. hotel about a 20-minute walk from most of the major attractions we wanted to visit. If the distance was too far, we took a taxi, like to Arlington National Cemetery and Washington National Cathedral.
On our final night in D.C., after dark, we walked to the reflecting pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the World War II Memorial. There, we pondered our vacation, enjoying peace and quiet from the normal crowd of tourists.
My last trip to the capital city of the United States was in 2016. As president of the Missouri Press Association, Connie and I flew to D.C. to lobby our representatives in Congress along with other newspaper delegates from across the country. While there, we enjoyed dinner at the Occidental. After our meal, Connie and I walked around the White House.
During all three of these trips, we always felt safe.
I am not stupid. In 2025, I would not sleep in my car at the Lincoln Memorial, walk with my wife and children at night to the reflecting pool, or walk around the White House after dark.
The reason is high crime.
According to CrimeGrade.org, in 2025, all the areas I visited and stayed in during my three trips to Washington, D.C. received an “F” grade. The website says, “The F grade indicates that the rate of crime is much higher than that of the average U.S. state. District of Columbia ranks in the 1st percentile for safety, meaning it is safer than 1 percent of states but less safe than 99 percent.”
After President Donald Trump federalized the Metropolitan Police Department under section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, Democrats have touted statistics showing the murder rate in our nation’s capital is down.
This is akin to law enforcement bragging that the average speed on an interstate highway is now only 85 miles per hour, down from 95 miles per hour the previous year.
If an airline had eight airplane crashes this year compared to 10 last year, would you feel safe boarding one of their planes?
Statistics show that while the D.C. crime rate is down, the possibility of dying from crime has skyrocketed.
A report published in July by the Council on Criminal Justice found Washington D.C. had the highest lethality level for 17 large U.S. cities between 2018 and 2024. The study included cities such as Baltimore and Chicago.
Here are the numbers of homicides in D.C. over the last few years: 2020 - 198, 2021 - 226, 2022 - 203, 2023 - 274, 2024 - 187 (an average of 3.6 homicides per week).
The White House recently published graphs on X showing D.C.’s murder rate, according to FBI data in 2024, at 27.54 per 10,000 people. These numbers are reportedly higher than in cities in other countries such as Bogota, Baghdad, Panama City, and Mexico City.
As of Aug. 24, our nation’s capital went 11 days without a homicide after making 1,000 arrests during Trump’s crackdown, which sounds good to me.
As Trump sends in help for D.C. police to arrest criminals and reduce crime, Democrats once again find themselves on the wrong side of an 80-20 issue.
Of course the true test will come in six months. Will the Democrat controlled city take advantage of the help, or let the city slide back down to high crime.
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History note: The District of Columbia is named for Columbia, Lady Columbia or Miss Columbia, the female personification of the nation. There are 53 Columbias in the U.S. including Columbia Missouri. She is also the central element of the logo of the Hollywood film studio Columbia Pictures.
If you would like to learn more, please click on the links below.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/dc-has-murder-free-week-ag-bondi-touts-77-more-arrests-federal-takeover
