US lawyer declined to prosecute 67% of arrests in DC as nation’s capital suffers crime spike

The U.S. Lawyer for the District of Columbia declined to prosecute the overwhelming majority of arrests made within the nation’s capital final yr, in line with a brand new report.

U.S. Lawyer Matthew Graves, who was appointed by President Biden, declined to prosecute 67% of these arrested within the metropolis in 2021. Whereas critics argue Graves is leaving criminals on the road, he states that almost all of the declinations are for nonviolent crimes, like gun possession, drug possession and burglaries.

“I can promise you, it’s not MPD holding the bag on this. That’s B.S.,” D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee instructed The Washington Put up. “After all we’re involved. We consider each particular person we arrest ought to be off the streets.”

The shockingly low prosecution charge is available in stark distinction to these of different main U.S. cities. The U.S. lawyer working in Detroit declined to prosecute simply 33% of arrests, whereas the lawyer for Chicago declined 14% and the lawyer for Philadelphia declined simply 4%, in line with the Put up.

DC POLICE CHIEF GETS PASSIONATE IN CRIME MEETING: ‘SOMETHING GOING ON WITHIN THE CULTURE OF OUR YOUNG PEOPLE’

Graves factors out that town is prosecuting 87.9% of these arrested for violent crimes.

“The underside line is that it creates the impression that that is an throughout the board lower within the variety of instances we’re bringing. That’s merely not true,” Graves instructed the outlet.

Contee has expressed frustration with the dearth of penalties for crimes within the metropolis for weeks. Earlier this month, he supplied a easy resolution for what the nation’s capital can do in another way to get homicides down: “Hold violent individuals in jail.”

DC POLICE CHIEF GETS PASSIONATE IN CRIME MEETING: ‘SOMETHING GOING ON WITHIN THE CULTURE OF OUR YOUNG PEOPLE’

“What we bought to do, if we actually need to see homicides go down, is maintain dangerous guys with weapons in jail. As a result of after they’re in jail, they can not be in communities taking pictures individuals. So when individuals speak about what we gonna do completely different, or what we must always do completely different, what we have to do completely different, that’s the factor that we have to do completely different,” Contee mentioned March 8.

Contee has recognized the issue as a difficulty with town’s youth, saying his division has seen an alarming rise in theft and different violent expenses as first offenses amongst younger individuals.

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“Their first offense, their first introduction to the prison justice system – 100 younger individuals for theft,” the chief of police lamented. “I checked out a video about two days in the past at a constitution college, the place three younger individuals took one other particular person’s footwear off them – whereas they’re at school – and put the footwear in a trash can whereas anyone else recorded it.”

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