The 'Crime Emergency' That Never Goes Away

Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly "wanted the National Guard to do duty on District streets. . . . Kelly said she wanted them to set up roadblocks to help stem the flow of illegal guns. . . . the mayor's spokesman said the Guard would ride along with the police. . . . [President] Clinton said the Constitution would have to be changed to give Kelly authority over the Guard." [The Post, in a year-end review of local news, Dec. 30, 1993]

"Mayor Anthony A. Williams pledged yesterday to reduce youth-on-youth homicide throughout the District by December, and he set a goal of lowering . . . violent crimes among young people in Southeast Washington by 10 percent within a year. . . . 'We can't have this many kids dying without calling into question what I'm doing,' he said." [The Post, June 23, 2000]

"Beginning today, another police redeployment begins in the District after a wave of violence that left 12 people dead in late July and early August." [The Post, Aug. 22, 2000]

No chief has gone to the mattresses as often as Ramsey.

"The D.C. police department is in the third month of an emergency anti-crime program. In late August, Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said the city was approaching a 'crisis' of crime and suspended a set of rules governing his officers' days off." [The Post, Nov. 3, 2003]

"D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey today will announce a crime-emergency plan that commanders said will give them more resources to target juvenile auto theft, a problem that has resulted in three fatal wrecks in recent weeks." [The Post, July 19, 2004]

"Four people were killed in the District late Thursday and early yesterday, prompting top police officials to invoke crime-emergency powers that allow them to more quickly change officers' schedules and restrict days off." [The Post, Dec. 3, 2005]

"D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey reacted yesterday to a recent surge in homicides by declaring a 'crime emergency,' a move that gives him the freedom to quickly adjust officers' schedules and restrict their days off." [The Post, July 12, 2006]

And so it goes. With each emergency, more arrests, more guns recovered, more young men hauled into court and jailed, which usually lowers the communal blood pressure until, of course, the next crime wave.

Sooner or later, however, the incarcerated are returned to the District's streets, unrehabilitated and untrained. Meanwhile, preteen, out-of-control youngsters grow into out-of-control teenagers with guns and attitudes.

Ergo , another flare-up in violence, or a sensational crime that grabs national attention, followed by an emergency proclamation that produces yet one more version of the same short-term response.

This emergency response, along with the others, will all too soon be forgotten, because it's not designed to have a real and lasting impact on crime, a point Chief Ramsey acknowledged in a Close to Home column in The Post ["Why I Declared a Crime Emergency" July 16].