WATCH: DC Police Chief Begs For Common Sense to Combat Crime as City Council Attempted to Decrease Sentencing

On Monday, Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee voiced his concern over recent efforts by the Washington, D.C. city council to pursue soft-on-crime policies by lowering the penalties for carjackers despite the fact that a carjacking takes place nearly every day in the nation’s capital.

The police chief was speaking with Mayor Muriel Bowser at Mayoral Public Safety Media Availability when he wanted to ensure that violent criminals go and stay in jail, as reported by Fox News.

“What we got to do, if we really want to see homicides go down, is keep bad guys with guns in jail,” the police chief said. “Because when they’re in jail, they can’t be in communities shooting people.”

“So when people talk about what we 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 added.

“We need to keep violent people in jail,” Contee explained. “Right now, the average homicide suspect has been arrested eleven times prior to them committing a homicide. That is a problem. That is a problem.” 

As previously reported by the DC Enquirer, the bill passed by the city council, which was passed in late January, would revamp the entire criminal code of the nation’s capitol and would go into effect in three years following Bowser’s signature. It would eliminate most mandatory minimum sentences and allow for jury trials for misdemeanors, as reported by The Washington Post.

In response to the city council’s efforts, notably contrary to the mayor’s wishes, Congress condemned the move by the federal district passed with 250 in favor and 173 against. Amongst those in favor were 219 Republicans alongside 31 Democrats. All those against the motion were members of the Democrat Party.

FOLLOWING TRUMP’S BACKING, LEFTIST LAWMAKERS ARE FORCED TO HEEL TO GOP AND REPEAL D.C. SOFT-ON-CRIME LAWS

The move to repeal the DC criminal code was pushed by President Donald Trump initially leading Republican lawmakers to get behind the move. In a post to Truth Social in January, Trump called for Congress to take action.

“In the middle of the city’s bloodies crime wave in decades, the left-wing lunatics on the Washington D.C. city council has passed a radical bill to throw open the jailhouse doors, set loose violent felons, and let criminals run wild,” Trump began. “I just wonder are they going to allow the patriots of January 6th to go or are they going to be the only ones in jail in Washington D.C.”

“The bill is a horrific catalog of the sickest and most twisted ideas of the radical Democrat’s defund the police crusade,” he explained, adding, “and remember for all the police that are listening, they want to defund the police.”

“That’s where they started and that’s where they want to finish. It reduces penalties for carjackers, it lowers penalties for robberies, it slashes penalties for convicted felons committed gun crimes, it eliminated almost all mandatory minimum sentences,” the 2024 presidential candidate continued. “Murders in DC are up 63 percent year-to-date yet the bill even makes murders and rapists allegeable for early release.”

“It seeks to overwhelm the court system by dramatically expanding jury trials for simple misdemeanors so criminals won’t be charged for those offenses. It is a betrayal of our police and a betrayal of our people,” the 45th president said. “By virtue of the federal government’s unique responsibility for the District of Colombia, Congress can vote to stop these deranged policies from going into law. Congress should immediately send a resolution to Joe Biden’s desk rejecting this weak-on-crime agenda.”

The DC City Council should take the police chief’s lead and actually enforce their laws while pursuing anti-crime policies. The federal district should not be controlled by criminals. Law and order must be restored.

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