DC police chief delares crime emergency.....

[harleygirl]

``I would think that at 2 o'clock in the morning on the streets of Georgetown, a group of three people, one of whom is 15 years old, one of whom is a bald chunky fat guy, are going to stand out,'' said Solberg, who is white. ``They were black. This is not a racial thing to say that black people are unusual in Georgetown. This is a fact of life.''
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5945559,00.html

 

[morganj614]

black people on the streets of D.C.?? Say it isn't so!

 

[Lilypad]

Didn't Chief Ramsey declare a "Crime Emergency" last summer, too, as well as the summer before that? Seems to be an annual occurence in the District (as well as PG county).
After all, with some of the most restrictive gun laws in the Nation, you'd think that D.C. was high unto sainthood. And those who argue that it is the fault of more permissive gun laws in neighboring states...why isn't there a spike in crime in those states? Why is it that there are other areas of our Nation where gun laws are much more permissive and the crime rates there are much lower? Certainly the lack or abundance of guns is not the root of this problem. But I'd be willing to bet that IF the majority of D.C. residents who are more law abiding and honorable had the means and training to protect themselves, there would be a significant and overall drop in crime. I didn't say that we should all go kill those we don't agree with or dislike. The mere idea forming in the pea-sized brain of a criminal that a potential target may be armed; this is a significant deterrent all by itself….and no gun has been brandished and no shot has been fired.
BTW-I don't even go into our Nation's capital anymore. Parking sucks, things are overpriced, and you're more likely to get robbed/killed.

 

[Lilypad]

Food for thought:

If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq Theater of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2,112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.

The firearm /stabbing death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000 for the same period.

That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in the U.S. Capitol, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, than you are in Iraq.

Conclusion: The U.S. should pull out of Washington immediately.