(Headline USA) More than a dozen Democrats joined House Republicans this week in voting for a bill overhauling Washington, D.C.’s lax criminal policies.
The D.C. Criminal Reform to Immediately Make Everyone Safer (D.C. CRIMES) Act, introduced by Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., would prevent the D.C. courts and the leftist D.C. City Council from loosening sentencing requirements for juveniles and young adults. The bill would also require the D.C. attorney general to create a public website to track youth and juvenile crime rates.
It comes as the nation’s capital experiences a massive uptick in violent crime, such as armed carjackings, being largely committed by underage suspects.
Even lawmakers have fallen victim to the crime wave. Last October, for example, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, was carjacked at gunpoint by three robbers near his Capitol Hill home.
Cuellar was one of 18 Democrats who voted for Donalds’s bill.
Some of the others include: Reps. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.; Pat Ryan, D-N.Y.; Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas; Jared Golden, D-Maine; Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio; Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz.; and Angie Craig, D-Minn.
“Our nation’s capital is experiencing a historic crime wave as a result of progressive, soft-on-crime policy,” Donalds said in a statement after the bill passed the House this week.
“This man-made public safety crisis is unacceptable,” he continued. “Congress has a constitutional responsibility to oversee the District of Columbia and it is imperative that we act quickly to assert our control when local government fails to do its job.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., specifically blasted Democratic city leaders for the crime crisis.
“Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies have significantly changed policing across the country—and some of the worst consequences can been seen in our nation’s capital,” he said in a statement. “Congress has a responsibility to act in the interest of the District of Columbia.”
