U.S. Senate widely rejects Democrats D.C. crime plan

By CASEY HARPER THE CENTER SQUARE

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Senate voted 81-14 Wednesday to overturn the Washington, D.C. city council’s plan to lower the penalties for a range of criminal offenses. President Biden had expressed support for Congress stepping in.

As previously reported, the bill would have reduced the maximum penalties for offenses like murders, armed robberies, armed home invasion burglaries, armed carjackings, unlawful gun possession, and some sexual assault offenses.

Late Wednesday, 33 Democrat Senators voted with Republicans to block the criminal penalties reform in a rare exertion of Congress’ jurisdiction over the capital city. Total crime is up 25% in D.C. so far this year. The plan sparked bipartisan opposition, including from the city’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser.

After the pushback, the city’s Council Chairman Phil Mendelson announced he was withdrawing a controversial crime law from Congressional consideration, but that didn’t stop the Senate from going through with their vote to reject the city’s bill.

According to data from the D.C. government, homicides this year are up 31%, sex abuse is up 113%, motor vehicle theft is up 110%, and arson is up 300%. Some crime categories were slightly lower or about the same.

Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee weighed in on the issue, calling for keeping “bad guys with guns in jail.”

“What we got to do, if we really want to see homicides go down, is keep bad guys with guns in jail,” Chief Contee said in a news conference. “Because when they’re in jail, they can’t be in communities shooting people. So when people talk about what we’re gonna do different, or what we should do different, what we need to do different, that’s the thing that we need to do different.”

He went on to point out that “the average homicide suspect has been arrested eleven times prior

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