Time to Audit the Audit: DC Vision Zero Deaths Up 69%

 

DC Vision Zero wasn’t working but all seemed silent. The Vision Zero campaign originated in Sweden and was first introduced with a zero-by-2020 tagline back in the '90s.  Mayor Muriel Bowser, at a time when District Homicides were soaring in 2015, adorned herself in helmet and suit of armor, unsheathed her sword, and made a bold declaration at the knights’ table: “There Will Be No More Traffic Deaths in the District of Columbia by 2024!”  The knaves of the mainstream media were agasp.  They reported all over the land that the Warlord of Their Raven Marxist Agenda had chosen quite wisely.  While under her regime Bowser has witnessed over 1,600 homicides, this achievement shall be her greatest, there shall be no deaths in the land for another day.  For if the other great knights of the European Progressive Roundtable had smitten traffic windmills in Sweden, imagine how much more Bowser could conquer in DC!

As of Friday, November 17, 2023, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’ s Metropolitan Police Department reports that  traffic fatalities are up 69% over last year at this time: 44 (2023) versus 26 (2022).  What many DC media darlings will not report concurrently is that traffic fatalities have risen 69% since she implemented Vision Zero in 2015: 44 (Year to Date, 2023) versus 26 (2015).  The Exceptional Conservative Show Host Kenneth McClenton estimates the Traffic Fatalities will end the year at 48.  That number would be 37% higher than the end of the last year (2022) and 54% higher than when the City (Mayor and City Council) implemented Vision Zero in 2015.  It is indeed much further away from the goal of “eliminating traffic fatalities and severe injuries“ per the Vision Zero Network. You do not have to be an Elizabeth Seton High School mathematician to know this truth.

The Vision Zero program seems more an arrogant trophy of Utopians’ achievement or intent to make DC more European than an effective public policy of traffic safety.  Unlike its promises, it has not been safe, healthy, equitable or produced mobility.  The concept of Vision Zero was first adopted by Sweden in 1997 as a long-term objective that no one should be killed or seriously injured in traffic, and that the transportation system should develop and implement policies and practices necessary for zero traffic fatalities. Its success in America, since 1997, has motivated only 45 or  little more cities to implement it or even consider its implementation.  Despite it being implemented in 2/10ths of 1 percent of America’s 19,495 cities in over a decade, the global elite are determined to make certain that the conclusion arrived it is that only fifteen (15) minute cities will be the answer to keeping cities safe from violent vehicles that result in the fatalities of bicyclists and pedestrians.  Its pursuit is more of the themes of arrogance and deceit than effectiveness and truth.

The time to bring an end to this frail Leftist attempt to remove cars from the inner-city and create 15 minute cities was many years ago as the City of Washington witnessed not a growth in public safety but in traffic fatalities.  Traffic fatalities had fallen from a height of fifty-four (54) in 2007 to nineteen (19) in 2012.  A slight uptick in following years--twenty-six (26)--gave opportunists the chance to declare a crisis.  Rahm Emanuel, former Mayor of Chicago, current United States ambassador to Japan, and, White House Chief of Staff under former President Barack Hussein Obama II when he said this, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.”  The crisis  answer was a rigid pursuit of traffic management and the proposition of a new way of travel in the United States--Vision Zero.

Vision Zero Part I:DDOT Made Progress on Engineering & Equity but Gaps Remain, Auditor Kathleen Patterson, announced that DC’s Vision Zero was failing but not because it doesn’t work but because Bowser and the DC City Council failed in implementation, “ While District leaders made a public commitment to Vision Zero, implementation was delayed by failure to establish the bureaucratic infrastructure within DDOT and failure to fully fund the Vision Zero Omnibus Amendment Act”.  DC’s answer to failure is more failure.

It May Be Time to Audit the Audit.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released, on September 28, 2023, its early estimates of traffic fatalities for the first half of 2023, estimating that traffic fatalities declined for the fifth straight quarter. An estimated 19,515 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes, representing a decrease of about 3.3% as compared to 20,190 fatalities in the first half of 2022. Fatalities declined in both the first and second quarters of 2023.  Let me repeat, traffic fatalities are up 69% in the District of Columbia while the Nation’s traffic fatalities have fallen.

Our District leaders are propagandizing an argument that we need to double down on failure.  The mainstream media does not want your eyes to believe what they are seeing. Or at least your brain!  

District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Interim Director Sharon Kershbaum says get ready for the next tier of Chinese Communist Party surveillance.  The City is preparing for the next stage of behavioral modification via traffic enforcement.  Drivers caught blocking the bus stops will receive a citation in the mail with photos taken by cameras installed on Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) buses.  The citation includes a picture of the plate and a zoomed-out image of the vehicle showing where it is on the bus. DDOT said these images are reviewed by multiple people to make sure there is a violation before citations are sent out.  This clear lane enforcement will happen in two phases: Right now citations are given to those blocking the bus stops, and those blocking the bus lanes will receive a warning for now with tickets starting January 1, 2024.

What’s wrong with you, Ken!  You don’t want buses being blocked and people not getting to where they are supposed to be. That blockade distorts commercialism and the free market system.  We must do this for the good of capitalism!

Sure, Sure.

While Mayor Bowser is having streets in the M Street Navy Yard neighborhoods painted red, especially in areas where there is no bus stop, to ensure her camera-ticket revenue, can we explore the fields of physics and photography.  Using the two disciplines of kinematics and dynamics, it is impossible to believe that an object traveling in a lane that is blocked in transit by more than one vehicle will be only able to photograph any more than the last object blocking its pathway.  Dynamics, focused on the Laws of Motion, determines the causes of motion. Kinematics involves describing motion through properties such as position, time, velocity, and acceleration.  A photographer can photograph two objects in a straight line, one visible and the other blocked.  You will be able to see only the visible object fully and the blocked image, partially or not all.   Under the Laws of Motion, the bus driven with camera on-board travels in a straight line in one lane.  

If five cars are parked in a bus lane, as on H Street on any given day, the only car photographed will be the last of the five motionless cars.  The bus driver, as he is paid by Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and must operate the vehicle on its behalf, will move in the straight line into the next lane before returning to the former lane to release its passengers.  The bus driver, acting as tax revenue agent, has collected $100 out of a possible $500.  As a tax collector, the driver is unjust.  As a traffic enforcement, the bus is ineffective in removing its blockade.  In fact, it is only impactful on the one violator.  Many of the future violations will be against commercial carriers that have no other options of delivery.  Those costs, mere tax revenue placed in general liability, will be passed onto consumers during the President Joseph Biden Build Back Better Economy.  You, the consumer, will be paying for an inefficient, ineffective, punitive process on installing Vision Zero for the City of Washington.

Dan Luscher, author of “The “keystone habit” for reimagining our transportation system” on the :15 City Blog, said, “Oslo and Helsinki have taken top-to-bottom approaches to making streets safe, including low speed limits, street designs that prioritize safety over moving traffic, significant car-free spaces, comprehensive bike networks, and robust public transportation.” What many on the Left don’t tell you is how drastic an effort was taken to achieve this goal.  The Guardian Newspaper reported,

“Christoffer Solstad Steen from Trygg Trafikk, a road safety organisation in Norway, said: “[Politicians in Oslo] have chosen to make it more difficult to use a car – it takes more time to drive from one part of the city to another now and you have to pay money to use the road much more than you used to.”

In 2017 there was a 70% increase in tolls across the city, in plans spearheaded by the Labour and Green parties, which led to a 6% decrease in traffic.

Car parking charges were also increased – by 50% in downtown Oslo and 20% elsewhere – although thousands of spaces have now been wiped out to make room for 35 miles of new cycle lanes.

The city has reduced speed to a maximum of 30km/h (18 mile per hour [mph]) outside schools and started trialling “heart zones”, where driving is banned in areas around schools. Officials in Oslo hope to create 100 of these zones over the next four years.”

The DC Department of Transportation has been quite deceptive in its process of instituting Vision Zero in the District of Columbia.  They have not been forthright in the depths and lengths the City must go to create a Vision Zero Universe.  Kea Wilson, author of Vision Zero is Missing Something Big: Getting Cars Off the Road, made it 

abundantly clear, in a fashion that the bureaucrat can not speak and the Marxist’s constituencies can not accept.  She proclaims the truth behind vision Zero, “It’s not hard to guess why advocates are shy to get on the #BanCars bandwagon.”  The truth is the only way to create a city with zero traffic deaths is to eliminate the greatest source of the traffic fatalities--cars and trucks.  

Victoria Transport Policy Institute Director Todd Litman pointed out the omission in a recent article for Planetizen. “Although the United States has rigorous road and vehicle-safety standards, and numerous traffic-safety programs, it also has the highest per capita traffic death rate among developed countries.  Why?  Because people in the United States also drive more than residents in peer countries.”  

Muriel Bowser wants to be able to say in December 2023 is that Vision Zero didn’t work because of YOU.  We tried slowing you down by lowering speed limits.  We tried changing your behavior by speed cameras, stop sign cameras and other artificial intelligence items.  We weren’t taxing you by acknowledging that Maryland and Virginia drivers weren’t subject to the same punitive efforts as District taxpayers--a dubious form of separate and not equal.  If only you could have used our advanced and improving public transportation system.  If only you could have fully used our bicycle lanes then, we would not have has as many traffic fatalities as our critics point out that we did before we started.  Vision Zero isn’t the failure, the people of the City of Washington are the failure.  We have begun to implement and fund our newest traffic safety program: Vision Negative Ten.  By 2030, we will have no cars, no trucks!  There will be no emissions, no EV or ICE!  Carbon won’t grow on trees.  Every American will get around Washington with a bus or subway pass.  Free At Last, Free At Last, Thank Humankind, We Are Free At Last!

Long impugned by their Marxist government overseers from crime to COVID then, you will see District funded non profit organizations leading the Anti-Car Revival.  Local media will trip over themselves to cover 24/7 as guilted District residents attend events sponsored by Disney, Coca-Cola, American Express, Bank of America, Lowe's, Pfizer and the Washington Commanders to turn over their cars and keys to the City of Washington.  Donors will get a free bus pass to attend an event at the newly remodeled football stadium named for Marion Barry.  

O, what a glorious day it will be for the City.

While the Progressive Left have begun to recite, “There’s No Place Like Home, There’s No Place Like Home” and “From the River to the Sea, We Will Get Rid of Carbon in Trees”, let me speak to those that have both feet on the ground.  It’s time to reveal the truth about Vision Zero in its hometown--Sweden. 

The Radical Left Argue for Vision Zero the way that the Military Complex argues for a greater share of the federal budget.  Farhad Manjoo, New York Times Opinion Columnist, wrote:

“I don’t doubt the political wisdom of Manchin’s pledge to support only what he can explain. I do wonder, though, how he applies his maxim to a far more mammoth, more sweeping piece of the federal budget: the nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars that we are spending this year on a military that has become the epitome of governmental dysfunction, self-dealing and overspending.

Of course, I’m only kidding. I don’t actually wonder about Manchin’s stance on showering the Department of Defense with more money than it asks for, even more than it seems to know what to do with. Right around the time he was bayoneting Build Back Better, Manchin joined 87 other senators — Democrats and Republicans — in rubber-stamping another gargantuan budget for the Pentagon. They allocated $768 billion for the military in 2022, roughly $24 billion more than the White House requested from Congress.

Given all the challenges we face at home, does it make any sense to keep spending so many hundreds of billions on the Pentagon?”

The Radical Left and their rhetoric carriers can not let go of the Camelot Ideas of Utopia.  Vision Zero isn’t failing, Long Live, Sweden!  We just must do more, spend more and convince more!

In Springer Link, Matts-Åke Belin authored Vision Zero in Sweden: Streaming Through Problems, Politics, and Policies.  He wrote, “Despite the strong political support for Vision Zero and its strategies, soon after its adoption dark clouds began to appear in the sky. To go from words to action, e.g., measures for the implementation of Vision Zero, turned out to be more difficult than its proponents had originally expected.”  Yes, even the Swedes could not swallow the horse size pills of the Marxist’s anti-vehicle proposals.  Why the increase in traffic fatalities? Sweden answers, “In line with what was predicted by road safety experts, when Sweden started to recover from its economic recession and get back to a normal economic growth, the number of fatalities flattened out and started to increase.” Are you trying to say that traffic fatalities are a part of life and death, why it appears to be the case.  Traffic fatalities seem to happen at 20 miles per hour just as they do at 65 miles per hour.  Just as the Left blames the gun during a murder, they are wantoned to blame the car in vehicular homicide.  Never the shooter.  Never the driver.  Imagine if we would only lock up guns and vehicles, what a wonderful world this would be.  

While the tyrannical approach towards traffic safety limps on with a downsized, less mandated version of its original Vision Zero in Sweden, the author wants you to know something, Vision Zero “did not solve the problem”.  Like any other government program, it may shrink but it will never die.  The Swedish government has offloaded the program to provide a softened approach to traffic safety.

How did Sweden handle Vision Zero failure?  Belin writes. “The target for 2007 to halve the number of fatalities from 1998 was missed by more than 200 fatalities, compared to what the target stipulated. In 2006, the Social Democrat Party was voted out of office.”  Social Democratic is the name of socialist parties in several countries.  Democratic socialism has been described as representing the left-wing or socialist tradition of the New Deal.  We call it the Democrat Party in the United States.  Socialism has a way of always running out of Utopian ideas shortly before they run out of other peoples’ money.  Sweden understood how you deal with Utopian ideas that lead to poor results and financially broken systems: VOTE THEM OUT!

DC, it may be time to Audit the Audit.

Dying On the Vine: Why the Bowser Propaganda Machine Is Trying to Save A BLM Police Chief Candidate

One of the most prolific photographs of Mayor Muriel Bowser was taken in June 2020 when after the Department of Public Works painted the words "Black Lives Matter" in yellow, 35-foot-tall (11 m) capital letters, along with the D.C. flag, during the series of George Floyd protests taking place in the city.  Bowser became a National Heroine for recognizing the side of America that revolted against “law and order” policing that results in the deaths of black perpetrators and at once, was going to stick it to a political foe, President Donald Trump, as New York Attorney General Letitia James is attempting with a fraud trial.

BLM protesters were voters not just those seeking retaliation for the death of George Floyd through a violent “Summer of Love”. However, Bowser, having spent over 8 million dollars alone on the “Plaza” has never completely won over the Radical Left’s adoration with her “Defund the Police” response.  In fact, on June 10th, 2020, the Washington Post reported Bowser saying:

”Her critics say her gestures, including renaming a street and marching with demonstrators, are simply performance, not progress.  Black Lives Matter is very critical of police. They’re critical of me,” Bowser said shortly after she hung the new Black Lives Matter Plaza sign outside the White House, and the group Black Lives Matter D.C. responded on Twitter, “This is a performative distraction from real policy changes. Bowser has consistently been on the wrong side of BLMDC history.”

Bowser, at the cost of public safety, was committed to winning the Radical Left over. She also knew that she needed to be seen as tough on crime for the traditional Democrat-Marxists that wanted “safe streets” to keep citizens and businesses in the City.  So, you engineer a political propaganda machine that speaks to both groups as if you are satisfying all.  Tough to do when homicides have swollen from 105 in 2014 to 226 in 2022 and despite unfounded claims that Recovering Guns will reduce Crime (2,178 Recovered in 2014 and 3,152 Recovered in 2022). The SCIENCE says:

“The studies, data, and examination of the available evidence by scholars suggest that assault weapons bans or buybacks will have little if any effect on rates of violent crime and gun violence.”

However, when you are a Democrat-Marxist, the only SCIENCE that matters is POLITICAL.  Full speed ahead!  Run the Propaganda Machine!

Bowser wins her Democrat Primary in June 2022 and the Media gives cover despite her dramatic flaws as a Law Enforcement Mayor.  According to the D.C. Board of Elections, 438,373 (almost 65 percent) of the District’s more than 670,000 inhabitants were registered to vote as of Jan. 31 this year. Of registered voters, three in four identified as Democrat, one in eight as belonging to no party, and just six percent as Republican. So When You Win the Democrat Primary then, You are Mayor.  

The Media also persists in the Narrative that there are major political differences within the DC Democrat Party and that Bowser is the fulcrum that keeps it balanced.  NBC Washington Staff and Associated Press, on June 22, 2022 reports it this way:

“Mayor Muriel Bowser won the Democratic primary on Tuesday, overcoming a progressive rival and virtually guaranteeing that she will win a third consecutive term to lead a city confronting inequality, crime and public safety concerns.

Bowser defeated At-large Councilmember Robert White, who harshly criticized her response to spiraling violent crime rates, and Councilmember Trayon White, who represents Ward 8, the poorest and most crime-ridden area in the District.

Under pressure from activists calling to defund the police, Bowser largely stood by her police department, fighting public battles with the D.C. Council over the police budget. She quietly replaced an older white police chief with a younger Black successor and has pushed for funding to build Metropolitan Police Department staffing, currently at 3,500, up to 4,000 officers over the next decade.”

I wonder how the Associated Press and NBC would have reported it if a White Republican Mayor replaced an older Black Police Chief with a younger white successor?  Things that make you go, “Hmmmmmmm?”

So Nelson Mandela, eh. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., eh.

Mayor Muriel Bowser owed her Radical Left constituents patronage in order to keep her Black Card.  Quite a tight rope walk it is.  You have to show Congress that you are “a strong black woman who don’t need no man” but also you know how to say that you “believe in law and order” because you know on which side the bread is buttered.  You have to show the City Council that you got their Radical Left back and can keep constituents silent even when they see with their own eyes that it's Mogadishu out there and no one is safe!  You have to show the Police that you got their back in a strong Mayor system but, they will have to get used to the New Normal: BlackLivesMatter Defund the Policing.  Finally, you have to show your voters that Demographics, not Crime, is all that Matters and we can solve anything if we just hire the right Black, female Police Chief that will put away her Faith to police the LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ and the P community--”And my faith has nothing to do with me treating anyone differently,”  What next stop Police & Community Advocates Speak at Faith & Blue Weekend Breakfast:

“I wear two kinda divine hats in this space”.

Checking the Boxes, Mayor Bowser appoints Pamela Smith to the post of Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department.  With only one leg of the race remaining--DC Council Confirmation and Approval, Smith would formally become the second woman and first African American woman to become Chief of the DC Metropolitan Police Department.  D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto, Chairwoman of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, said a confirmation hearing will be held as soon as possible.

Houston, err, DC. we have a problem that the Propaganda Machine may not be able to repair:

U.S. Representative for Texas's 28th congressional district Henry Cuellar.

We are not talking about a guy or gal in their first term to the US House from Idaho .  He is a member of the Democrat Party.  Cuellar has described himself as a "moderate-centrist" or conservative Democrat.  Cuellar was first elected to Congress in 2004.  Cuellar is a Member of the powerful Appropriations Committee and a Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee.  Cuellar voted in favor of both articles of impeachment against Trump.  Political Leaders endorsing him for 2024 included Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark, and Democrat Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar.  Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer, and Assistant Democrat Leader Jim Clyburn also endorsed Cuellar.  Again, Not A Junior Congressman from Montana.

On October 2, 2023, at around 9:30. p.m. ET, Cuellar was held at gunpoint and carjacked by three robbers outside of his Washington D.C. apartment residence. The suspects stole Cuellar's vehicle as well as his luggage, though the car and all of his belongings were recovered by law enforcement a few hours later.  Cuellar was reportedly unharmed. US Capitol Police and DC Metropolitan investigations are ongoing.

What was merely smoke a few weeks ago is now a political flame.

The smoke was once white and then began to turn black over Smith’s short term as Chief.  Smith was supposed to be Bowser’s election gift to the Radical Left and BlackLivesMatter constituency.  The chief, an ordained minister who had introduced herself as a “pistol-packin’ preacher” began to receive cover from the Media and Propaganda Machine seemingly from the beginning.  Her biography seemed to cover all of the political factions Bowser needed.  She was an experienced law and order cop as she had served as Chief of the US Park Police.  The Propaganda Machine never seemed to question why a woman who became Park Police Chief, the first in its 230 plus year history, just retired after one year.  “Smith — who the Washington Post reports is 54-years-old — did not offer a specific reason for retiring, but she expressed gratitude for her 24-year career with USPP in a statement.”  The same Propaganda Machine?  Never Questioned in July 2023 although it reported the following in April 2022:

“When Smith took the job, she inherited a troubled department, with issues that had been becoming increasingly public in recent months. It was unclear Friday night how much progress had been made in addressing these issues.

And on Wednesday, the Park Police officers’ union filed a five-page complaint with the inspector general saying the agency was “engaged in gross negligence and mismanagement at great risk to the safety of the public due to understaffing of sworn personnel.” The Fraternal Order of Police’s Park Police Labor Committee said staffing for the three field offices had dropped from about 639 officers to 494 officers, lower than the force size in 1975.

The complaint said that Smith decided in February to cancel certain days off “to fill the massive holes in even bare minimum law enforcement coverage. … Under the current staffing system, every officer is basically on call, all the time and there is no end in sight."

The IG condemns her for maladministration and not one question from the components of the Propaganda Machine of Bowser or Smith.  Amazing!

The white smoke fades to black when some in the media begin to question where or who Smith is getting her stats.  Smith admits that she has no law enforcement strategy or plan and must wait for her leadership team to help form one.  This although she was once a noted Police Chief with the US Park Police.  59 Days into her new gig, the “pistol-packin’ preacher” announces that crime has fallen 30% since she was promoted.  This just 37 days after DC Councilmember Trayon White called for the National Guard to enter the City because “We are in a War Zone”.  By the way, Smith hasn’t had time to talk with White about that National Guard thing.

“What we’ve seen in that space is that there is a 30% decrease with our focused patrol efforts,” acting Police Chief Pamela Smith told the I-Team in late August.

According to an I-Team analysis of documents provided after Smith’s statement, total crime rose in areas D.C. police included in its Focused Patrol and Community Engagement Strategy by 15.5%. Violent crime dropped by 3.5% from May 1 to August 22.”

Amazing!

Not to be outdone, DC Councilmember Pinto advised that the passage of her Crime bill this summer resulted in a reduction of crime in the City to 25%.  Although no data accompanied that revelation.  It is very rare that a piece of legislation can have such an immediate impact.  Yet, no questions from the Propaganda Machine.

The DC Police said hold my beer.  Since the Culture of Data Skewing has been established, we can do you one better:

"With the stand up of the nightlife task force we've seen a reduction in that type of crime," James Boteler, Commander of D.C.'s Third District, continued.

But a search of the Metropolitan Police Department's crime data tells a different story. According to a search of their Crime Cards, an online platform that allows users to search for crime type by police district and geographical areas, robberies along the U Street corridor increased since the task force started.

During the first six months of 2022, before the task force was in place, 45 incidents of robberies were reported in Advisory Neighborhood Commission 1B. Over the last six months of 2022, 73 incidents of robberies were reported in ANC 1B, an increase of 62%.”

Maybe the question should be, “Has Pamela Smith created a Culture of Statistical Skewing to Fit Narratives or did she inherit that?

We are proving that you do not need a plan or strategy to watch a fire burn.  We waited nearly 90 days for a plan and Bowser and Smith lent this one to us for her September 27 hearing. Here is the Battle Plan: 

OUR STRATEGIC PLAN

There are three core components to building

our successful strategic plan:

„ Prevention & Intervention — The best way we can make our communities feel safer is to prevent crimes before they even happen.

„ Accountability — We cannot prevent every crime, but we can work to ensure those who commit them are held accountable.

„ Sustainability — This is challenging work, and we cannot do it alone. We must recruit new officers to join us, make sure our members stay healthy so they can fight crime, and look for ways to use technology and partnerships to expand our reach and impact.

Or maybe you prefer Bowser’s Crime Theorem since she got into politics: 

“So you ask me what are we doing differently and here’s the truth. Wherever I have seen spikes in gun violence, throughout my tenure from ANC, to the council, to mayor We've literally thrown everything at the problem. And we watch to see what works and we adjust as we go along.”

It’s the Spaghetti Crime Strategy.  Now we are getting somewhere.  So this is why you went with the Curfew that has touched the lives of 28 children since its inception.  Heck, none of our Radical Left Maneuvers are working, let’s try this one from the Oldies but Goodies even though the Department of Justice said it wouldn’t work.  DC is now more reassured of its safety especially on this statistic, 217 homicides to date and 38% (83) have occurred under the “pistol-packin’ preacher’s” watch.  Smith is on pace to have more homicides in her short tenure than her predecessor, former Chief Robert Contee (134).

Tom Sherwood brought up a significant point about Smith’s September 27 District of Columbia Council Committee on the Judiciary & Public Safety hearing.  Seven of the Thirteen DC Councilmembers either did not attend or did not ask the Acting Chief any questions.  The most glaring sign of trouble, even before the Cuellar Incident, is that the Chairman, Phil Mendelson, and former Mayoral candidate Robert White did not attend.  The following Councilmembers did not ask even a single question: Kenyon McDuffie, Brianne K. Nadeau, Janeese Lewis George, Vincent C. Gray and Trayon White, Sr.  That is half of the City Council.  Has the City Council made a “down-low” determination that Smith will not make it to the finish line of confirmation.  Are there too many fires and smoke signals that this will not be a prudent pick for Police Chief beyond Acting?  Is the #BlackLivesMatter experiment at Police Chief a doomed failure?  Bowser can’t have such a loss on her record.  Whom will she point to as racist or sexist, when it was the Party that rejected the choice?  Or has Congress sent a note that a new Search Committee must be formed?

The Propaganda Machine had to keep this from the masses.  They need to know that Smith is effective and is loved and has been given great support.  LaShonia Thompson-El is a gun violence reduction advocate, said, "One of my hopes is she will be community-centric and she will implement a community policing strategy that also involved community engagement. I'm hoping she will look at violence from a preventive lens and potentially work on the root causes of the violence. I know, traditionally, the job of the police is to respond to violence and solve crime, but we actually need a leader who is interested in the public health approach and is interested in approaches that cause less harm. A lot of the violence we're seeing is predictable. I strongly feel it can be prevented, but we have to approach it and be willing to provide resources and build strategy around how to prevent it, as opposed to coming up with punitive responses that are more reactive and responsive. They're not helping fix the problem. They're actually harmful and cause more trauma."  She was joined by Police Union Chairman Gregg Pemberton, “ We're very optimistic. It's clear to me the mayor and deputy mayor have done a thorough search and have gone through all of the potential candidates. We're very confident Chief Smith has the resume, experience, and credentials to fulfill this role, especially in such a critical time. I think the rank-and-file of the Metropolitan Police Department are excited about working with Chief Smith, and I think she can get the job done."  Yeah, the same guy who just a few months ago told Congress that DCMPD was going to hell in a handbasket.

Then, two days after the Cuellar Incident, Mayor Bowser held a Press Conference about Operation Trident Targeting Violent Offenders.  A three-day fugitive apprehension operation, conducted by the Metropolitan Police Department, U.S. Marshals Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington Field Office, and Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA), has resulted in the apprehension of 48 fugitives and the recovery of three firearms.  Of the 48 arrests, there were 96 total charges, 72 of these charges were warrants closed and 24 were additional charges. Of the warrants, 19 were for Failure to Appear, 33 Bench Warrants, nine Fugitive from Justice, two Federal Warrants, seven Parole Violations, two Probation Violations, and three Firearm Recoveries. Some arrestees were charged with multiple counts for active warrants.  

While I celebrate them for working together to get this accomplished, I ask, “Isn’t this your reasonable service?  Aren’t you supposed to arrest those that are probation and warrant violators"? 

According to 24-405 of the DC Code:

If said Board of Parole, or any member thereof, shall have reliable information that a prisoner has violated his parole, said Board, or any member thereof, at any time within the term or terms of the prisoner’s sentence, may issue a warrant to any officer hereinafter authorized to execute the same for the retaking of such prisoner. Any officer of the District of Columbia penal institutions, any officer or designated civilian employee of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, or any federal officer authorized to serve criminal process within the United States to whom such warrant shall be delivered is authorized and required to execute such warrant by taking such prisoner and returning or removing him to the penal institution of the District of Columbia from which he was paroled or to such penal or correctional institution as may be designated by the Attorney General of the United States.”

Yes, it's supposed to work like that.  

By the way, we estimate there are at least 6,000 plus outstanding active warrants in the Nation’s Capital.  Hence, the Mayor threw a press conference to acknowledge that in 72 hours they collected 0.07% of those outstanding.  It would probably be cheaper to offer a reward to the General Public for turning in those on the ACtive Warrants list.  Far better than spending $300 million on putting speed bumps in the middle of roads that have not experienced a traffic accident in decades.  This was important that the Bowser Administration mobilize the Propaganda Machine for a soiled Police Chief looking for a win and a Mayor trying her best to seem like she is “doing something”.

Desperation is the Essence of the Spaghetti Crime Strategy.  Desperation is a noun from the Latin desperationem (nominative desperatio) "despair, hopelessness.." Valerie Sabater writes, “Desperation is a poison that turns off your hopes, motivations, and energy little by little. It’s the scab that permanent disappointment leaves and the thorn that makes you breathe through bitterness until you’re immersed in a dangerous psychological trap.”  While the Radical Left has promoted an illogical reasoning that people unable to defend themselves are the victors over desperation.  Criminals sense the weakness of those that they attack.  Moreso, they understand the probabilities of success.  Many offenders who victimize other people do so deliberately, intentionally, and with advance planning.  More driven by greed than poverty, criminals take advantage of a people without hope, full of despair.  Such a feeling is invasive and oppressive.  The People of Washington, DC have been invaded by the Radical Left’s Agenda and are now oppressed by it.  There is a needed change but not as simple as a change of Police Chiefs. The people must put off their shackles and take control of the place that lacks it.

You don’t have to be a Vegas Poker Star to understand that you have the edge in a hand where an individual is unable to defend themselves.  This realization is what law abiding citizens fear--"state of being afraid, uneasiness caused by possible danger".  What citizens and criminals don’t doubt is the inability of the government to fully protect their lives or stop them from committing crimes.  It is that lawlessness that drives people to make choices out of their desperation.  For the criminal, it is to create victims--from Latin victima "sacrificial animal; person or animal killed as a sacrifice".  For the citizens, it is to flee or fight.  Without the inability to fight, the government has given the law abiding only one real option.  Bowser’s and Smith’s Spaghetti Crime Strategy offers no other assurance.