It’s still too damn high (more about that in another post), but here are the 2024 homicide data for D.C.:
| area | 2023 | 2024 | percent change |
| D.C. total | 273 | 186 | -32% |
| Ward 1 | 28 | 15 | -46% |
| Ward 2 | 11 | 11 | 0% |
| Ward 3 | 2 | 2 | 0% |
| Ward 4 | 16 | 15 | -6% |
| Ward 5 | 36 | 23 | -36% |
| Ward 6 | 26 | 11 | -58% |
| Ward 7 | 56 | 44 | -21% |
| Ward 8 | 98 | 65 | -34% |
There were impressive drops in Wards 1, 5, 6, and 8. The Ward 1 and Ward 6 declines might very well be due to taking down some of the crews in (or adjacent to) those wards*. In Ward 8, there was far less violence in Bellevue, but I haven’t heard any hypotheses as to why the decline occurred. So this is good, but it’s still too damn high, which will be the subject of a future post.
*While the federal prosecutors and judges (D.C. as a mainland colony does not choose these; they are nominated by the president and approved by the Senate) often are too lenient on gun-related crimes, they do like building large cases against criminal organizations, which can do some good.
mikethemadbiologist