Senate KILLS DC police reform law that would reduce sentences for carjacking

The Senate passed a resolution that would overturn a radical D.C. policing law making it more difficult for law enforcement to enforce the law and put criminals behind bars, while D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser continues to blame ‘more guns’ for the rise in violent crime in the nation’s capital under her leadership.

Democrats Joe Manchin, Jon Tester, Jeanne Shaheen and Krysten Sinema, an Independent who votes with the Democratic Caucus, crossed over to join Republicans in voting for the measure, which passed 56 to 43 Tuesday afternoon.

D.C. has faced a rise in violent crime recently, including a skyrocketing numbers of carjacking incidents in recent months. The rise includes a 13 percent increase in violent crime and a large increases of homicides and rapes.

Despite safety challenges, the D.C. City Council voted to pass a new law that would reduce the maximum sentences for carjackings, despite a 49 percent increase in carjackings in the nation’s capital in 2023 alone.

The law also bans police from using chokeholds, makes disciplinary records of law enforcement public and requires body camera footage to be released.

Republicans have said that the provisions in the law would make it more difficult for police to do their jobs, at a time the D.C. force is severely understaffed. 

Republican Sen. J.D. Vance introduced the resolution last week that would block D.C.’s police law. 

‘Congress must exert our constitutional authority to keep our nation’s capital safe,’ Vance said in a statement ahead of the vote. 

‘It’s a disgrace that the capital of the most powerful nation on earth has become so dangerous, but this sad reality is exactly what we should expect when far-left activists are calling the shots. For the good of every American who lives in or visits this town, I urge my colleagues to support my disapproval motion.’ 

In April, the House voted to successfully repeal the D.C. law and put the ball in the Senate’s court.

‘America has a police shortage, but radical Democrats are introducing even more anti-police policies. House Republicans voted to nullify the most anti-police policy to ever be jammed through the DC City Council,’ House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a video Tuesday posted to Twitter.

‘The Senate must now vote, & President Biden should sign it into law.’

Biden, however, has already promised to veto the legislation overturning D.C.’s police reforms. 

During a House Oversight Committee hearing Tuesday ahead of the Senate’s vote, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser apparently blamed the rise of guns for making the city more dangerous in recent years.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., directly asked the mayor: ‘Is Washington, D.C., more dangerous now that you’re in office?’ 

Bowser said the nation ‘is more dangerous with more guns’ as crime skyrockets under her watch

Bowser testified on the Hill Tuesday before the House Oversight Committee

Bowser skirted the question, replying to Boebert that the nation ‘is more dangerous with more guns.’

The mayor continued throughout the hearing to back up her own record, saying it is her top priority to ensure D.C. is a safe place for children to ‘live up to their God given potential.’

She also made a statement in reference to the Senate’s action, saying it ‘doesn’t make sense’ for others to be so closely invested in the capital’s local issues.

‘It doesn’t make sense for anybody from around the U.S. to purport to care more about our issues than we do.’

Police Chief Robert Contee said in October that more crimes are being committed by ‘young people’ in the district at a ‘pace that I have not seen in my 30-plus year career here with the Metropolitan Police Department.’

The D.C. police force has lost over 1,190 officers since the start of 2020, creating a massive shortage on the force.