Mostly. The great news is, as of 9am today, D.C. had another week without any homicides, keeping the total for the year at 32*. At this time last year, there had been 68 homicides, and in the surge year of 2023, over the same time period, there had been 97 homicides. Good job, D.C.!

That said, as some asshole with a blog noted a couple days ago, the effect of the National Guard occupation has been to decrease car-related crimes (theft from auto and theft of auto), along with robberies**, but we’re seeing a significant rise in those categories, though they’re still significantly lower than at the same time last year. I haven’t really been able to see an obvious geographic pattern to the rise either. It would not be good if we’re still saddled with an illegitimate Guard occupation that also has lost effectiveness.

We are still on pace for another 33 percent drop in homicides for the third straight year, not that one would know this based on news reporting. Because people’s attitudes about city crime are completely unfounded.

Anyway, here’s to a really good week.

*Three of the 35 murders reported this year actually occurred in other years (e.g., a missing persons case from 2023 turned into a homicide case this year with new evidence).

**In terms of overall violent crime, much of the large decrease in robberies has been erased by the increase in assaults with a dangerous weapon, though I think the latter is largely due to changes in reporting.