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D.C. Leads Big Cities In Rate of Homicides
FBI Ranks District Third In Overall Violent Crime
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54808-2003Nov2.html
By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 3, 2003; Page B01
Washington had the most homicides per capita of any of the nation's largest cities last year, according to FBI statistics released last week.
The crime rate has remained fairly steady in recent years, but the District still was among the most violent and deadly of U.S. cities with populations of 500,000 or more, the statistics show. The District ranked third for its rate of violent crime -- which includes homicides, assaults, rapes and robberies -- behind Detroit and Baltimore.
D.C. neighborhoods are much less violent than they were a decade ago during the crack cocaine epidemic, when the city was tagged the nation's murder capital. But a spate of violence this year, including warfare among emerging street gangs and last week's fatal shooting of a student outside Anacostia High School, has generated increasing pressure on police and city officials.
Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) said he worries about the contrast between a continued daily grind of crime, which he called "a slow-moving disaster in our city," and improvements in residential neighborhoods and downtown. He said he was concerned that economic development would suffer if crime began to rise significantly.
The D.C. police department is in the third month of an emergency anti-crime program. In late August, Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said the city was approaching a "crisis" of crime and suspended a set of rules governing his officers' days off.
The measure was supposed to allow commanders the freedom to move officers quickly to new shifts or duties so they could better respond to outbreaks of crime. In recent months, commanders have targeted long-standing problems, including burglaries in Northwest Washington, illegal guns in Anacostia and drug dealing.
The District's homicide toll rose 14 percent last year, to 264. At the same time, the number of violent crimes dropped by 8 percent. This year, the amount of crime rose a few months ago but flattened more recently to last year's levels. During Ramsey's tenure, which began in 1998, crime has stayed relatively steady in Washington, with violent crime rates as low as in the late 1960s.
Perhaps because of this improvement, the District's reputation as a lawless place to live and work seemed to recede in recent years, according to some civic leaders.
"That kind of faded away," said Robert A. Peck, president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade. "And [it was] kind of overtaken by the idea that Washington . . . is a good place to do business and a good place to live."
But crime, especially violent crime, did not fade away here. While many cities fare worse than Washington in overall crime -- including burglaries, stolen cars and other property crimes -- Washington has remained near the top in homicides and violent acts per capita. That's because violence has declined nationwide in the past decade.
The homicide rate -- based on the number of killings per 100,000 residents -- in Washington is more than twice that of Los Angeles and more than six times New York City's. The District's 7th Police District, which includes Anacostia, recorded 52 homicides last year, five more than in all of San Diego.
Joanne Savage, an American University criminologist who has tracked D.C. crime trends dating to 1960, said that "in the long term, we're doing quite well." But that's when comparing the city to itself, she said. This kind of success would look like failure almost anywhere else, she added.
"Some cities have never seen rates like what our low point is," Savage said.
She and others have offered many theories as to why Washington has remained more violent than other big cities. Some observers focus on the guns that poured into the District during the crack wars and remained. Savage and Ramsey, among others, point to demographics, saying the District has a higher concentration of poor people than many other big cities have.
Criminologists have argued that the label "murder capital" was unfair because Washington's unusually small geographic size skewed the numbers upward when compared with cities whose boundaries encompass more low-crime, suburban-style communities. Ramsey, in an interview, echoed that view.
"There were pockets of Chicago that were very much like the District, but there was [also] a very, very large, stable middle class, and that's something that we just don't have in the District," said Ramsey, who came to Washington from the Chicago Police Department.
Ramsey noted the sharp divide between rich and poor in the District. "It just seems like people are on one side of the scale or another, with nothing in between," he said.
To bring about another sharp decline in crime, Ramsey said, the city must address such social problems as illiteracy, teenage pregnancy and drug abuse.
"If you want crime to improve, and not just a blip on the radar screen, then you've got to look at some of the things that drive crime," Ramsey said.
In Washington this year, a string of high-profile incidents has made crime impossible to ignore: Devin M. Fowlkes was shot Thursday afternoon outside Anacostia High School, street gangs staged a daylight shootout last month across busy 16th Street NW, young joy riders in stolen cars killed two people this summer in Southeast and three people were slain in April during an apparent robbery of Colonel Brooks' Tavern in Northeast.
Overall, D.C. police say, more than 7,300 violent crimes have been reported since Jan. 1. By Friday, 208 people had been slain. The numbers of robberies and sexual assaults are running 9 percent above last year's levels, police statistics show. But the number of homicides is down slightly, and the number of assaults with deadly weapons is declining 10 percent.
Many residents sense that conditions are getting worse. "I have what I consider to be a crisis of crime today," said Sam Bost, a Deanwood resident and president of the Far Northeast/Southeast Council.
His Northeast neighborhood has been plagued by shootings and robberies. Drug dealers and their customers block streets, he said, and teenagers go joy riding in all-terrain vehicles. "I certainly don't want to leave home," he said.
John Aravosis, an activist who runs a Web site tracking the performance of D.C. police, said conditions seem worse. He cites robberies in his Adams Morgan neighborhood.
"I think all hell's breaking loose," he said.
In interviews, the mayor and other civic boosters agreed that this kind of crime and the struggling public school system remain the two major impediments to Williams's goal of attracting 100,000 new residents.
"I get e-mail from people who've moved into the city. . . . In some cases, they're sorry they have moved" because of crime, Williams said in a recent interview. "I'm going to have trouble, ultimately, getting my goal of 100,000 unless we see a noticeable downturn" in crime.
One illustration of what the city is up against comes from police reports detailing Washington's many armed robberies.
Those reports show that in many D.C. neighborhoods, robbers do not feel the need to tell their victims, "This is a robbery."
Instead, they merely show that they have a weapon, and let the victim know in street lingo that they are about to be held up.
One common phrase was used during a 1 a.m. holdup last month near the Howard University campus. The robber simply told his victim, "You know what time it is."
The victim got the message: He gave up his earrings, watch and $40.
"They don't want to use the old cliche of saying, 'This is a robbery,' " said Detective McKinley Williams of the 4th Police District. "It's like . . . 'If you see this gun, what do you think I'm here for?' "
FBI Ranks District Third In Overall Violent Crime
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54808-2003Nov2.html
By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 3, 2003; Page B01
Washington had the most homicides per capita of any of the nation's largest cities last year, according to FBI statistics released last week.
The crime rate has remained fairly steady in recent years, but the District still was among the most violent and deadly of U.S. cities with populations of 500,000 or more, the statistics show. The District ranked third for its rate of violent crime -- which includes homicides, assaults, rapes and robberies -- behind Detroit and Baltimore.
D.C. neighborhoods are much less violent than they were a decade ago during the crack cocaine epidemic, when the city was tagged the nation's murder capital. But a spate of violence this year, including warfare among emerging street gangs and last week's fatal shooting of a student outside Anacostia High School, has generated increasing pressure on police and city officials.
Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) said he worries about the contrast between a continued daily grind of crime, which he called "a slow-moving disaster in our city," and improvements in residential neighborhoods and downtown. He said he was concerned that economic development would suffer if crime began to rise significantly.
The D.C. police department is in the third month of an emergency anti-crime program. In late August, Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said the city was approaching a "crisis" of crime and suspended a set of rules governing his officers' days off.
The measure was supposed to allow commanders the freedom to move officers quickly to new shifts or duties so they could better respond to outbreaks of crime. In recent months, commanders have targeted long-standing problems, including burglaries in Northwest Washington, illegal guns in Anacostia and drug dealing.
The District's homicide toll rose 14 percent last year, to 264. At the same time, the number of violent crimes dropped by 8 percent. This year, the amount of crime rose a few months ago but flattened more recently to last year's levels. During Ramsey's tenure, which began in 1998, crime has stayed relatively steady in Washington, with violent crime rates as low as in the late 1960s.
Perhaps because of this improvement, the District's reputation as a lawless place to live and work seemed to recede in recent years, according to some civic leaders.
"That kind of faded away," said Robert A. Peck, president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade. "And [it was] kind of overtaken by the idea that Washington . . . is a good place to do business and a good place to live."
But crime, especially violent crime, did not fade away here. While many cities fare worse than Washington in overall crime -- including burglaries, stolen cars and other property crimes -- Washington has remained near the top in homicides and violent acts per capita. That's because violence has declined nationwide in the past decade.
The homicide rate -- based on the number of killings per 100,000 residents -- in Washington is more than twice that of Los Angeles and more than six times New York City's. The District's 7th Police District, which includes Anacostia, recorded 52 homicides last year, five more than in all of San Diego.
Joanne Savage, an American University criminologist who has tracked D.C. crime trends dating to 1960, said that "in the long term, we're doing quite well." But that's when comparing the city to itself, she said. This kind of success would look like failure almost anywhere else, she added.
"Some cities have never seen rates like what our low point is," Savage said.
She and others have offered many theories as to why Washington has remained more violent than other big cities. Some observers focus on the guns that poured into the District during the crack wars and remained. Savage and Ramsey, among others, point to demographics, saying the District has a higher concentration of poor people than many other big cities have.
Criminologists have argued that the label "murder capital" was unfair because Washington's unusually small geographic size skewed the numbers upward when compared with cities whose boundaries encompass more low-crime, suburban-style communities. Ramsey, in an interview, echoed that view.
"There were pockets of Chicago that were very much like the District, but there was [also] a very, very large, stable middle class, and that's something that we just don't have in the District," said Ramsey, who came to Washington from the Chicago Police Department.
Ramsey noted the sharp divide between rich and poor in the District. "It just seems like people are on one side of the scale or another, with nothing in between," he said.
To bring about another sharp decline in crime, Ramsey said, the city must address such social problems as illiteracy, teenage pregnancy and drug abuse.
"If you want crime to improve, and not just a blip on the radar screen, then you've got to look at some of the things that drive crime," Ramsey said.
In Washington this year, a string of high-profile incidents has made crime impossible to ignore: Devin M. Fowlkes was shot Thursday afternoon outside Anacostia High School, street gangs staged a daylight shootout last month across busy 16th Street NW, young joy riders in stolen cars killed two people this summer in Southeast and three people were slain in April during an apparent robbery of Colonel Brooks' Tavern in Northeast.
Overall, D.C. police say, more than 7,300 violent crimes have been reported since Jan. 1. By Friday, 208 people had been slain. The numbers of robberies and sexual assaults are running 9 percent above last year's levels, police statistics show. But the number of homicides is down slightly, and the number of assaults with deadly weapons is declining 10 percent.
Many residents sense that conditions are getting worse. "I have what I consider to be a crisis of crime today," said Sam Bost, a Deanwood resident and president of the Far Northeast/Southeast Council.
His Northeast neighborhood has been plagued by shootings and robberies. Drug dealers and their customers block streets, he said, and teenagers go joy riding in all-terrain vehicles. "I certainly don't want to leave home," he said.
John Aravosis, an activist who runs a Web site tracking the performance of D.C. police, said conditions seem worse. He cites robberies in his Adams Morgan neighborhood.
"I think all hell's breaking loose," he said.
In interviews, the mayor and other civic boosters agreed that this kind of crime and the struggling public school system remain the two major impediments to Williams's goal of attracting 100,000 new residents.
"I get e-mail from people who've moved into the city. . . . In some cases, they're sorry they have moved" because of crime, Williams said in a recent interview. "I'm going to have trouble, ultimately, getting my goal of 100,000 unless we see a noticeable downturn" in crime.
One illustration of what the city is up against comes from police reports detailing Washington's many armed robberies.
Those reports show that in many D.C. neighborhoods, robbers do not feel the need to tell their victims, "This is a robbery."
Instead, they merely show that they have a weapon, and let the victim know in street lingo that they are about to be held up.
One common phrase was used during a 1 a.m. holdup last month near the Howard University campus. The robber simply told his victim, "You know what time it is."
The victim got the message: He gave up his earrings, watch and $40.
"They don't want to use the old cliche of saying, 'This is a robbery,' " said Detective McKinley Williams of the 4th Police District. "It's like . . . 'If you see this gun, what do you think I'm here for?' "
