Ketcham and Lehman: How to Bring Safety to DC

I know approximately 100% more about the situation than I did before reading this.

That [that home rule has some advantages] said, the city’s local leadership is failing. D.C. residents are worried about crime, according to polling from the Washington Post and George Mason University’s Schar School. Even as violence declines, mirroring improvements nationwide, pervasive public disorder and shocking incidents like the assault on Coristine continue to capture public attention. The federal government should exercise a firmer hand, just as states sometimes preempt local governments when they fail to address statewide priorities.

   Honestly, I kind of avoid DC anymore, and maybe haven't been up there in...five or six years? Except to go to Dulles or Reagan National...which...neither of those is technically in DC. Gosh, I may have not been in DC proper since before the Great COVID Freakout... We used to go up there all the time to do the Mall, Udvar-Hazy, hangout in G'town, Dupont Circle, etc. So it's not like we were hanging out in Anacostia or anything... To some extent we just got out of the habit. If it was just me it'd be one thing, but I'm not wild about JQ being in a city now known for its shitiness and crime...

   But anyway: everybody knows that DC is a train wreck. And anyone with more than half a brain knows that it's largely due to Democrat rule. There's just no doubt that DC has a crime problem, and that the problem could be mitigated by more rational policies--which in this case means: more conservative/Republican ones.

   Look, I like legal weed as much as the next third-rate philosophy professor...and that's the kind of thing Republicans might well want to nix...but it'd be worth it if our nation's capital could be less of a violent, third-world-ish shithole...