WaPo weenie Courtland Malloy wet himself shortly before clutching his pearls and fainting yesterday when faced with soaring violence that’s grabbing national headlines as a result of the gruesome throat-slashing of a British activist. But don’t dial 911 yet, the Washington Post is keeping it all in perspective:

A new crime trend is unfolding in the District — and some suburbs, too: an increase in armed robberies committed by thugs whose motivation appears to be less about getting money than inflicting pain. For even if you comply with demands to hand over your belongings, you are still likely to be assaulted, raped, kidnapped or killed.
[...]
“So far this year, we’ve had a 95 percent increase in juveniles arrested for robberies, and it’s not uncommon to have physical assaults in the process,” D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey..,

So we’ve eschewed money as the primary catalyst to Washington’s criminal woes but still embrace class war?

“We’ve got a lot of new people who are not accustomed to living in an urban environment,” Ramsey said. “They’ll park blocks away from a restaurant or a nightclub, then come out in the early morning hours, cut through side streets and become easy prey.”

Insty picks up on the “more guns, less crime” theme.

The cads, the fools. What country do they think this is?

Of course, this is not to suggest that the victims were somehow in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s not the victims’ fault. Elderly black women have been mugged, had their purses snatched and identities stolen — to say nothing of their dignity — and all they were doing was heading home from a hard night’s work at a hospital or office building.

So whitey gets robbed when he’s out partying in the city but only black people get robbed on their way home from work? I’m sure some of your best friends are white, Courtland. But do tell, who is really responsible for this sadistic surge of rape and robbery in the shadow of the shining City on the Hill?

Juveniles, many of whom have been robbed themselves — ripped off by parents and schools and communities that couldn’t care less about them — have become hardened and increasingly violent.

Why, that’s it! Assemble the militia. We must round up “Society” and put it on trial. When that 15 year old who has been arrested 10 times sticks a gun in your face just remind yourself, that’s not a socipathic delinquent, that’s the No Child Left Behind Act. When they’re slitting your throat as they rape your girlfriend, that’s just Robin Hood taking back Tax Cuts for the Wealthy. Or when you hear the hammer cock back as you walk to your car after a night of dinner and dancing, just tell yourself that your feet don’t hurt nearly as much as this misunderstood youth whose dreams have been stepped on by pale face’s penny loafers.

At what point do you choke on the premise of your “society’s fault” argument? You want strong communities and programs to keep kids from turning to crime but you don’t want to do what is necessary to protect the much criticized “white flighters” for being naive enough to return to the “urban environment”. If you can’t protect the people in your community you will soon find yourself living in individual fortresses.

Local DC blogs are equally clueless as to what solution might keep the streets free of blood:

Metroblogging DC:

So Police Chief Ramsey has declared a “Crime Emergency” after a 95 percent increase in juveniles arrested for robberies this year.

Whoop-tee-do.

I say that not to trivialize the real pain and trauma of the victims, or decrease the seriousness of the acts, I say it because we need to stop fooling ourselves that more police = less violent crime.

Violent crime in DC will not be reduced by more police. The problem is young men who find violent crime to be both a means of status and income.

Keep telling yourself that. When the gun is pointed in your face, you might not be so insouciant towards ignoring the symptoms of a societal disease that is as fatal to building a strong community as it is to the person whose right to defend their self was stolen years ago.

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