I really like James E. Miller!
* * *
Last June, a video of a brutal beating between two black
men on the city’s Metro line went viral.
One month later, on July 4, a young black man named
Jasper Spires stabbed an American University graduate nearly 40 times on a Red
Line Metro train. After gutting the victim, Spires proceeded to rob the rest of
the passengers, who watched the brutal murder without interfering.
To top off the year, just before this past Christmas, a
man was mugged and beaten by a group of unruly teens on the same Metro line
(the media isn’t reporting the race of the attackers, but you can guess it).
All along the Potomac, civility is crumbling. The
Washington Times reports that the District has seen an uptick in homicides by
54% over the past year. The majority of these murders occur in the city’s Wards
5, 7, and 8 — which are the poorest, most economically challenged in the city.
Local officials say there is no one reason for the bounce in the homicide rate,
even though common sense says the Ferguson Effect — that is, police being more
reluctant to patrol and deter crime due to fear of intense scrutiny from the
public — "might" have something to do with it.
Why crime is spiking in the nation’s capital is an
important question. But I’ll leave that to the experts to answer. What’s needed
is a solution to the rampant delinquency. And when I say “solution,” I’m not
referring to a dewy-eyed reform effort; I mean a real, gritty solution to the
disorder that surrounds Capitol Hill.
And, by Jove, I think I’ve found one!
In a nutshell, we should be forcing elected
representatives to police the streets of Washington, D.C., themselves.
That’s right: Give them guns, bulletproof vests, and the
authority to lock up ne’er-do-wells.
Make them leave the protective walls of Congress and do
the dirty work of crime fighting!
* I LIKE THIS GUY!
This all sounds crazy, right?
* NOPE! MAKE 'EM DO IT WHEN CONGRESS IS "ON BREAK!")
We already know that aggressive policing is capable of
bringing crime to its knees. Just ask anyone who lived in New York City before
the mayoralty of Rudy Giuliani. Alas, suggesting that cops do more to not only
prevent crime but express an intolerance for disorder won’t fly in our super
politically correct epoch. Stop-and-frisk is racist. Shooting down an unruly
thug is murder. Asking the boys in blue to do their job and keep society
functioning is asking for a barrage of hateful email and polemics from SJWs
without full-time employment.
That’s why I’m proposing such a novel solution to D.C.’s
slow descent into barbarism. It won’t be pretty, but I’m convinced the only way
to get federal lawmakers — the guys and gals tasked with ultimate jurisdiction
over the District — to pay attention to the crisis in their backyards is to get
them personally involved.
Anti-neoconservative voices in the media invoke the very
same principle when they impugn the tough talk lawmakers like to espouse when
it comes to fighting terrorism. Former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather most
pointedly conveyed this sentiment in a CNN interview two summers ago when civil
strife in Syria and Iraq was heating up. In response to congressmen’s calls for
saber rattling — a redeployment of troops back to the Middle East to root out
American-killing Islamists — Rather said, “I will hear you out if you tell me
you are prepared to send your son, your daughter, your grandson, your
granddaughter to that war of which you are beating the drums. If you aren’t, I
have no patience with you, and don’t even talk to me.”
* AND FOR THAT STATEMENT... GOD BLESS DAN RATHER!
Watching American journalists have their heads cut off by
ISIS madmen is indeed a tragedy that requires a response. But compare those deaths
with heartless murders that occur in America’s inner cities. In the past two
years, Islamic State savages are responsible for the deaths of nearly 100
journalists — including four Americans. There were 162 homicides in Washington,
D.C., this past year.
* 162 > 100. (AND 162 > 4.)
People are losing their lives halfway across the globe.
But our fellow citizens are losing their lives at home. The safety of the
latter should outweigh that of the former. As St. Aquinas wrote, “we should
love our kindred most, in matters concerning relations between citizens, we
should prefer our fellow-citizens….”
The chances of being killed by a terrorist are nil
compared with my being robbed on my morning commute. So... it only makes sense
for elected officials to focus more of their energy on rooting out the disarray
right in front of their noses!
* AGREED!
Because our elected officials are charged with protecting
the nation, I see no reason why senators and representatives, both Democrat and
Republican, can’t take up arms and march into D.C.’s poorest neighborhoods to
tamp down the malfeasance. They are citizens too, and have just as much
interest in preserving law and order on the home front.
(*HUGE FRIGGIN' GRIN*)
My proposal, of course, will not happen.
Elected officials in Congress live in a bubble.
They enjoy the best protection and security (taxpayer)
money can buy.
Their place of business has around-the-clock protection
from men with automatic weapons.
While the plebes have to deal with hoodlums on the Metro,
congressmen get a stipend to pay for luxury cars. They are paid inflated
salaries and receive all types of perks and benefits the rest of the country
only dreams of enjoying.
(*NODDING*)
(*PURSED LIPS*)
As long as lawmakers remain far removed from the dangers
everyday citizens must endure, little will be done to stem the rising crime
rate. So if mandating that congressmen patrol the streets of D.C. is out of the
question, I have one more suggestion:
Upon election, all lawmakers should be driven to the
heart of Anacostia and be forced to walk back to the Capitol without any form
of protection. Then... maybe they’ll finally understand the anxiety city
residents have to live with every day. And... just maybe... they’ll get a fire
lit under their rears and do something meaningful about District crime without
the worry of appearing bigoted or racist.
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