Four months after Mayor Muriel Bowser imposed her inane indoor mask mandate, Washington, D.C., will finally be done with it come Monday. Having broken the story of Bowser violating her own order and then lying about it, I am as happy as anyone. But given its timing, Bowser’s declaration seems intended to conceal the real scandal roiling the district.
With more than a month to go until the end of the year, homicides in 2021 have already surpassed the astounding number recorded in 2020.
At 198 homicides, 2020 marked a 19% increase from the year before. But this year, Washington has already suffered 199 homicides as of Nov. 16. That’s the most for any full year since 2004.
For the entire year of 2021 thus far, fully vaccinated district residents have been 15 times more likely to die from homicide than from the coronavirus. The three vaccines have been offered for free for nearly a year now, and an increasing number of therapeutics are acting as a second line of defense against COVID. This may not be true elsewhere, but in Washington, where nearly 4 in 5 residents have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, the pandemic is over. It has been for some time now.
The real crisis the capital must counter is violent crime.
Carjackings, up 50% from 2019 to 2020, are already up another 10% this year so far. The crisis, perpetrated in some cases by literal children like those who murdered Uber driver Mohammad Anwar back in March, forced Washington to create a carjacking task force. While sex abuse crimes are only up 4%, experts warn the lockdowns and lack of community ties amid the pandemic have led to underreporting of domestic crimes.
Ending a mask mandate that did nothing to the district’s already near-zero coronavirus death rate could help curb crime a bit, if only by allowing the dangerously empty portions of town to resume business. But thanks to a year of “defund the police” taking the nation’s cities by storm, and thanks to Bowser’s unserious approach to the rioting that roiled the district for over a year, more must be done. The city may remain under a state of emergency into next year.
But the real crisis is crime. If Bowser wants a third term, she would be wise to realize it.
