Violent crime and murder fell in many major cities around the United States last year, including Baltimore. Yet trends still moved the wrong way in D.C., which experienced more homicides in 2023 than any year since 1997. These data underscore the urgency of the wide-ranging crime-control legislation on which the D.C. Council’s public safety committee plans to vote on Wednesday.
Washington, D.C
Opinion | A crime-free D.C. starts with drug-free zones
We’ve previously advocated several of the measure’s 100-plus provisions, and most of them enjoy wide support among law enforcement, elected officials and the community. Key elements of the proposal, compiled by council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), would extend emergency legislation from the summer that made it easier to hold those suspected of violent crimes in jail pending trial — and require judges to issue a written explanation when they refuse to do so. It makes organized retail theft a felony; legalizes the sale of pepper spray and using it for self-defense; expands services for crime victims; bans wearing masks for the purposes of intimidation or committing a crime; expands the definition of carjacking to include coercing drivers to hand over their keys; and it gives police the authority to enforce civil offenses for Metro fare evasion.
One of the contested provisions of the bill, which some council members might try to remove before final passage, would reinstate D.C. police’s ability to declare temporary drug-free zones in crime hot spots. Supporters argue that it’s necessary to stem the violence associated with open drug-dealing. Using cannabis has been decriminalized in the District, but its sale for recreational purposes remains illegal, and much of the pot-dealing business takes place on the streets, as does the trade in meth and fentanyl. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) recently estimated there are about 10 “open-air drug markets” in the city. Though that’s fewer than there were at the height of the crack-cocaine epidemic of the 1980s, they still create nuisances and hazards for the community, as the presence of illicit cash inevitably leads to fights, robberies and, all too often, shootings.
The bill would address this by empowering the police to declare 1,000-square-foot areas drug-free zones for five days, whereupon officers would issue notices declaring it unlawful to congregate in them for the purpose of using, buying or selling drugs. Police would have the authority to disperse anyone whom they see, say, exchanging small packages or otherwise behaving in a way that police reasonably consider related to drug-dealing or usage.
Undoubtedly, any such criteria could be susceptible to abuse. Melissa Wasser, the American Civil Liberties Union’s D.C. policy counsel, has argued that “allowing officers to … harass people in designated zones will not make D.C. safer” and that “the District can’t make it a crime to simply stand around.” Similar concerns led the council in 2014 to take away from police the authority to declare drug-free zones, though the version of the law in force at the time had not been successfully challenged in court. As a council member, Ms. Bowser was one of those who voted in the majority on that bill. But she had a change of heart in response to new realities; D.C. needs a drug-free zone law, she said in October, to stop an “emerging trend” of drug-dealing along prominent corridors such as H Street NE and Chinatown.
The proposal before the council appropriately balances public safety and constitutional concerns. To assuage concerns about the power being misused, Ms. Pinto added language specifying that police cannot target people who are waiting in line for medical services, such as near a methadone clinic, or at their home.
Meanwhile, the decline of Gallery Place shows the quality-of-life deterioration that a brazen drug trade in a central commercial area — or anywhere in the city, for that matter — can breed. The Metro station’s exits often reek of marijuana. It’s common to see people buying and selling drugs under the Chinatown arch. Before he signed a deal to move the Capitals and Wizards to Virginia, Monumental Sports founder Ted Leonsis and his representatives repeatedly complained about these illicit transactions outside Capital One Arena.
Drug-free zones, used properly, are an appropriate tool to reclaim public spaces and help revitalize downtown Washington. Assuming the public safety committee passes the bill on Wednesday, the full council will take it up next week. The mayor says she’ll sign it. Along with the rest of the bill, drug-free zones wouldn’t be a panacea for D.C.’s crime problem, but they would be a step in the right direction.
4 things to know about the weather:
- Chances of rain in the morning
- Gusty Sunday
- Chilly Monday
- Temps will rise again through the work week
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.
The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.
Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.
However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.
QuickCast
SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s
MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
Washington, D.C
‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington
The most severe energy shock since the 1970s, the risk of a global recession and households everywhere stomaching a renewed surge in the cost of living – hitting the most vulnerable hardest.
In a sweltering hot Washington DC this week, the message at the International Monetary Fund meetings was chilling: things had been looking up for living standards around the world. But then came the Iran war.
“Some countries are in panic,” said the fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, addressing the finance ministers and central bank bosses in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. “The sooner it [the Iran war] ends, the better for everybody.”
Such gatherings are not typically used to fight geopolitical battles. “You don’t get people shouting at one another at these things,” one senior figure remarked. But, as a record-breaking April heatwave swept the US capital, no one could ignore the mounting damage from the Iran war.
Those familiar with the mood over breakfast at a meeting of the G20’s representatives on Thursday, which included Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the outgoing US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell – said the atmosphere in the room was sombre amid an open exchange of serious views.
“It is such a twilight-zone meeting,” said Mohamed El-Erian, a former IMF deputy managing director who is now chief economic adviser at the Allianz insurance group. “There are several shadows hanging over it: one is the shadow that comes from concern about the global economy as a whole.
“The second is that some countries are going to be particularly hard hit, and it’s mostly countries that very few people are talking about. But the third concern is the adding of insult to injury: the fact that the US, which started a war of choice, is going to be hit, but by a lot less than elsewhere in relative terms.”
Before Thursday’s breakfast, Rachel Reeves had started her day with an early-morning jog. Joined by her counterparts from Spain, Australia and New Zealand for a run down the iconic National Mall, she posted an Instagram selfie with a not-so-subtle dig: “Friends that run together – work together.”
A day earlier, the chancellor had told a CNBC conference that she thought “friends are allowed to disagree on things” as she criticised Trump’s Iran war as a “mistake” and a “folly” that had not made the world safer.
Speaking at a venue just steps away from the White House, before a one-on-one meeting with Bessent, she said this “fair message” was needed because UK families and businesses were feeling the pain from higher energy prices triggered by the conflict.
Those close to Reeves insist her meeting remained cordial. Britain and the US have significant shared interests in AI, financial services and trade. The chancellor also said the UK government had little time for the Iranian regime.
But with the IMF having warned on Tuesday that the Iran war could risk a global recession – in which Britain would be the biggest G7 casualty – it was clear Reeves had travelled to Washington ready to pick a fight.
“I’m struck by how vocal she has been and the words she used,” said one global financier. “We know the disagreement between Bessent and [European Central Bank president] Christine Lagarde earlier in the year. But that was in private.”
At a cocktail party held at the British ambassador’s residence for hundreds of diplomats and financiers – including the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, and dozens of senior figures – this transatlantic tension, weeks before King Charles’s US state visit, was a major topic of conversation.
The other, in the balmy residence gardens, was one of its former occupants, Peter Mandelson, as revelations about the former ambassador’s appointment threatened to further rock the UK government.
Before the war, the agenda for the IMF had been about global cooperation; the adoption of AI, jobs and work to eradicate poverty. Each of those tasks had now been complicated, but not least the task of countries working together.
For many at the meetings, the focus was on forging closer global cooperation without the world’s pre-eminent superpower.
“Everybody is talking about how you hedge against American decisions,” said David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary, who now runs the International Rescue Committee. “You can’t do without them, because they’re 25% of the global economy. But, in a lot of fora, they’ve pulled out.
“So everyone has to think, how does one structure international cooperation? The old west is not coming back. And so everyone has to figure out how to position themselves for that world.”
For those gathering in Washington, there was irony in the fact that they were meeting in the halls of institutions founded, under US leadership, to promote global cooperation after the second world war. The whole idea of the Bretton Woods institutions was to avoid the dire economic conditions and warfare of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet this year’s meeting was taking place amid these intertwining problems.
In their conversations about the best economic policy response to the shock of conflict, the economists also knew the real power to make a difference lay two blocks across town from the IMF and the World Bank – behind the security cordons and construction equipment blocking the White House from public view. “It is not clear they can do anything about it,” said El-Erian.
Still, with a booming economy driven by AI – including Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, the topic of much conversation – most countries cannot afford to completely break off US ties.
“People want to find ways to insulate themselves from the mess. But, on the other hand, they admire the US private sector,” El-Erian said. “The best way I’ve heard it put, is: they want to go long the private sector and short the mess. But it’s almost impossible to do.”
Washington, D.C. (7News) — Rosselli is the newest restaurant to open in DC.
Bringing in classic Italian flavors, Chef Carlos explained how he hopes his food is a unique addition to the Italian food scene in the DMV.
Chef also demoed a signature dish with Brian and Megan.
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You can learn more and book your table here.
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