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Republican lawmakers gathered Wednesday to celebrate President Trump’s crime-fighting push in the District that has driven down killings, carjackings and muggings during the month-long emergency period.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas credited Mr. Trump for acknowledging and addressing what he called longstanding problems of violence and disorder in the nation’s capital.
He also said D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, deserved some praise for assisting the federal enforcement push that has seen agents from the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and Homeland Security Investigations hit the streets alongside more than 2,000 National Guard troops.
“This is not just for the benefit of people who happen to work here or residents who live here,” Mr. Cornyn said. “This is for the benefit of the thousands, maybe even millions, of tourists and others who’ve come to Washington, D.C. to see the nation’s capital and to learn more about our nation’s history and how our government works.”
Mr. Cornyn highlighted statistics showing car thefts dropped by 35% and robberies fell by 62% citywide about halfway through the federal surge.
Sen. Roger Marshall, Kansas Republican, singled out the declines in homicides, which were down 38% in that same period, and carjackings, which fell a whopping 87%, amid the stronger law enforcement presence between federal authorities and the city’s Metropolitan Police Department.
Violent crime overall dropped by 45% midway through the surge.
But Mr. Marshall also said that, while the lawmakers can hail the progress, none were content with the current rate of crime given their connections to some of the victims.
“One of my staffers’ car and apartment was riddled with bullets. Two other of my staffers’ vehicles were broken in, and a fourth staffer was attacked by young punks,” Mr. Marshall said. “No, we’re not satisfied at all.”
The most personal connection to violent crime in the city was shared by Washington Examiner reporter Anna Giaritelli, who was attacked and sexually assaulted by a vagrant in 2020.
Ms. Giaritelli said the attack happened in broad daylight right by Union Station. The assailant pinned her arms down and yelled over her cries for help as he assaulted her.
Thankfully, Ms. Giaritelli said, bystanders noticed the commotion and came to her aid.
Metropolitan Police nabbed the suspect three months later, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office informed her he was released by a judge pending the outcome of his case.
The vagrant was arrested — and released — five more times for lewd and menacing offenses in the year and a half it took for the trial to start, Ms. Giaritelli said. He was eventually convicted and sentenced to more than two years in prison.
Ms. Giaritelli discussed her experience to not only warn of the city’s perils, but to note how Metropolitan Police never documented the attack against her five years ago.
“Why don’t I count, and how many more women and men and children have been uncounted at a time when D.C. crime is being addressed,” she said at the briefing. “How can we understand the problem and the breadth of crime when D.C. police are covering up the stats?”
Her story aligns with one of President Trump’s chief arguments for launching the federal surge: that MPD is fudging its crime data to make the District appear less dangerous.
He has often mentioned that a Metropolitan Police commander is currently under investigation for allegedly manipulating crime statistics.
MPD has also faced lawsuits from former police officers who say precinct captains change crime numbers to boost their image among the department’s top brass.
Mr. Cornyn said he hopes local leaders in the District take heed of the federal surge’s effectiveness and keep enforcing the law as a result.
He added that there is a need to change city laws that prevent juveniles from being charged as adults, since youths are involved in many of the carjackings in the District.
Mr. Trump’s federal crime emergency in the nation’s capital is set to expire Sept. 10.
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