Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans
To much of the city and even my colleagues on the Council, I think Ward 2 appears to be an idyllic place free of any major public safety problems. While it is true that Ward 2 contains the commercial center of the city and also benefits from the economic activity of our many wonderful shops, restaurants, and taverns, the presence of bustling evening and late night foot traffic necessarily results in unfortunate periodic acts of violence. Two issues of particular concern to me are the incidences of hate crimes in our neighborhoods and acts of violence associated with “promoters,” at various ABC establishments.
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Hopelessness Breeds Homicide – But the District Is Heading in the Right Direction
As of mid-December, there have been 106 homicides in the District of Columbia in 2011 — 16 percent below that number at same date last year – and that statistic is on pace to be the lowest annual homicide total in the District in nearly 50 years. This represents both the continuation and acceleration of a trend we’ve seen over the last decade. It’s also taking place at the same time that the District’s population is growing, meaning the murder rate is decreasing even more rapidly than the overall number of homicides.
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This past February, 18-year-old Cardozo High senior Lucki Pannell left this message on her Facebook wall:
Less than two hours later, Pannell was dead. Detectives said a man walked up to Pannell’s Columbia Heights porch, aimed a gun at Pannell and her friends, and fired.
She was ultimately one of 108 people killed this year in DC, the majority of them lost to gun violence.
Many cases, like Pannell’s, remain open without arrests. Others have been closed quickly. In DC courts, 70 people have been charged with murder or are awaiting murder charges in crimes committed in 2011.
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