The 'Crime Emergency' That Never Goes Away

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By Colbert I. King

Saturday, August 5, 2006

The District's leaders tell us we are now in the midst of a crime emergency. Pray tell, when in the past 20 years -- well, 17 to be exact -- have we been without one?

Let's repair to the archives:

"Partly in response to the record pace of homicides, the police department has just declared a crime emergency, permitting it to reassign about 400 officers, many from administrative positions, to street patrol one day a week." [The Post, March 9, 1989]

"[D.C. Mayor Marion] Barry has established a government task force to counter the city's image as the nation's drug and crime capital. . . . Barry said in his memo . . . that he has relied on advice from a private group of 'close personal friends and confidants' but that . . . 'in view of the drug and crime crisis confronting this community' he would consult them more often. . . . The mayor named as a member Mary Treadwell, his former wife who served 18 months in prison for defrauding the government and low-income tenants. She is now employed by the D.C. Parole Board." [The Post, April 8, 1989]

City Hall had a sense of humor back then.

Congress also recognized our emergency in the '80s.

"The House, in its first major response to the District's drug and homicide crisis, voted yesterday to authorize spending $127.3 million over the next five years to add 700 officers to the D.C. police department." [The Post, June 14, 1989]

The D.C. Council did, too.

"In its zeal to crack down on violence, the D.C. Council has spent the last few months introducing one tough new criminal-penalty bill after another. . . . Trying to find legislative ways to address the city's crime crisis is not a new exercise for the council." [The Post, Jan. 14, 1992]

And the emergency beat went on.

"[D.C. Police Chief Fred Thomas] declared a 'crime emergency,' a tactic that allows him to assign officers wherever needed without giving them the 28-day notice usually required by the union contract. Despite these and other measures, the city's homicide rate surpassed last year's. The chief also is grappling with a surge in gang-type violence." [The Post, Dec. 30, 1993]

Nor was Barry the only mayor to sound the alarm.