CV NEWS FEED // End-of-year crime statistics from Washington D.C., show that almost 1,000 carjackings took place in the city during 2023 alone.
D.C.’s 959 recorded carjackings last year represented a doubling of the total from 2022. The 2023 number was also more than six times 2019’s record of 152 carjackings.
“Our nation’s capital is a model of dysfunctional, clueless blue city governance,” wrote The Daily Signal’s Jarrett Stepman in a Monday commentary piece.
Stepman pointed out that “65% of the carjackings [in D.C.] last year were committed by perpetrators under the age of 18.”
“And it isn’t just carjackings that are on the rise,” he continued, noting that last year in the country’s seat of government “274 people were killed in homicides, a 36% increase from the year before.”
“That’s the highest homicide rate in two decades,” Stepman pointed out.
Incident reports show the capital’s crime epidemic is widespread throughout the city and not unique to its poorer neighborhoods.
In November, a Secret Service agent open fired at three attempted carjackers while protecting President Joe Biden’s adult granddaughter Naomi.
As CatholicVote then reported, the would-be perpetrators were not struck and “immediately fled the scene.” They had been trying to break into a Secret Service SUV.
The incident occurred in Georgetown, which is considered one of D.C.’s most affluent and family-friendly neighborhoods.
>> SECRET SERVICE AGENT OPEN FIRES AT CARJACKERS <<
One month earlier, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-TX, was the victim of a carjacking by a group of men who reportedly held him at gunpoint. The confrontation occurred outside of his apartment in Navy Yard, which Forbes had called “D.C.’s hottest neighborhood.”
“As Congressman Cuellar was parking his car this evening, 3 armed assailants approached the Congressman and stole his vehicle,” his Chief of Staff stated at the time. The lawmaker was unharmed and his car was recovered an hour later.
>> CONGRESSMAN SAFE AFTER BEING CARJACKED AT GUNPOINT <<
CatholicVote’s October reporting indicated that “Cuellar’s attack was not the first time a member of Congress or their staff was recently the victim of a crime in D.C.” in 2023:
In February, Rep. Angie Craig, D-MN, was assaulted in an elevator in her apartment building, allegedly by Kendrick Hamlin, a 26-year-old homeless man. Hamlin had reportedly grabbed her neck, but she was able to escape without significant injuries by throwing hot coffee at him in self-defense.
…
The following month, Phillip Todd, a young staffer for Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, was viciously stabbed on the same street as Craig’s building “in broad daylight.” Todd’s family described the attack as “random and brutal.” The 26-year-old staffer survived but sustained serious injuries.
In June, a staffer for Rep. Brad Finstad, R-MN, was attacked at gunpoint following the Congressional Baseball Game. That incident, like Cuellar’s carjacking, took place in the “trendy” Navy Yard neighborhood.
On the night of Cuellar’s attack, the congressman’s friend, Sen. Mike Lee, R-UT, took to X (formerly Twitter) pointing out that “Congress has the sole power to make D.C.’s laws, and must intervene.”
“D.C. is dangerous,” Lee wrote. “Something’s gone terribly wrong here—for far too long.”
Observers have also blamed the apparent inaction of the district’s government for the rampant crime problem.
Again from Stepman:
City leaders, despite all that’s happened, refuse to do anything serious to stem the crime spree. Instead, they prefer to rely on gimmicks to give the impression that they have things under control.
One such program launched by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser was to give D.C. residents free Apple AirTags so that their cars could be found after it’s been stolen. They’re essentially tracking devices.
