March 29, 2023

"Last year, federal prosecutors in the [Washington D.C.] U.S. attorney’s office chose not to prosecute 67 percent of those arrested..."

"... by police officers in cases that would have been tried in D.C. Superior Court.... In an interview, Matthew M. Graves, the Biden-appointed U.S. attorney for the District, said his office was continuing to prosecute the vast majority of violent felonies. He said prosecutors were declining less serious cases for myriad reasons, including that the city’s crime lab remained unaccredited and police body-camera footage was subjecting arrests to more scrutiny...."

"[P]rosecutors have to pay to have evidence for DNA, firearm and fingerprint analysis sent to outside laboratories, Graves said. Prosecutors, he said, prioritize doing so for violent offenses.... [A] D.C. law that the city council passed in 2020 preventing officers from reviewing their body worn cameras before filling out charging documents... means officers now have to rely on their memories and notes when filling out arrest warrants, and prosecutors might not move forward on a case if details in the warrant don’t match the footage, officials said.... Graves said the office temporarily had resources stretched thin in recent years, though some of those problems had abated. After the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, he said his office temporarily pulled about 15 prosecutors and staffers from D.C. Superior Court cases to focus on prosecuting the federal cases."

35 comments:

Yancey Ward said...

Commit any felony you like in D.C., as long as it isn't violent, and you will face no consequences.

This is the road to chaos.

wendybar said...

Prosecute the selfie takers who the Capitol Police ushered in, and let the real criminals run rampant. That's so progressive!!!

Yancey Ward said...

Oh, wait, I forgot about the non-violent January 6th protesters. Trespassing while supporting Trump is the one non-violent crime the Feds will prosecute fiercely.

Enigma said...

And this is why people in D.C. can't have nice things.

Compare the housing price trend for the last 3 years versus Miami, as gobs of easy-money loans were tossed around:

https://www.redfin.com/city/12839/DC/Washington-DC/housing-market

https://www.redfin.com/city/11458/FL/Miami/housing-market

Tina Trent said...

DC Democrat and libertarian crime leniency and selective hate crime sentencing created circumstances in which an aide of Rand Paul was knifed so brutally that he suffered life-threatening injuries yesterday. The attacker was a violent pimp, sex trafficker and woman beater who was released from prison the previous day after serving 11 years of a 12 year sentence. His time in jail before conviction may mean he wasn't technically released early, but because the multiple people he attacked, trafficked and forced into prostitution were just women, he wasn't subject to a hate crime prosecution that would have kept him behind bars for far longer. He should have gotten life in prison.

Gee. This didn't really make headlines like Paul Pelosi. Of course, Rand Paul himself aligns with the anti-incarcerationists. Hopefully this will teach him something, though being brutally attacked by his own neighbor didn't produce any new insights for him, and that Koch close the prisons money sure is luring.

gilbar said...

serious question: How many THOUSANDS of Jan 6th protesters will be imprisoned for being republicans?
How many TENS (HUNDREDS?) of THOUSANDS of republicans will be imprisoned for being republicans?
How many of the Violent Criminals NOT prosecuted by the US attorney will he hire as Black Shirts?

gahrie said...

So they let criminals go free so that they could persecute political opponents.

Big Mike said...

Glad I put the Washington metro area in my rear view mirror seven years ago after I retired. It was bad then and it’s only gotten worse.

hombre said...

Politically selective prosecution by Democrat prosecutors. Underfunding of law enforcement by hostile Democrat politicians. Concealing overrepresentation of blacks as offenders by Democrats.

Dog bites man.

Tom T. said...

It's impossible to evaluate that percentage without comparing it to similar offices, or at least over time.

Rabel said...

Despite the reference to "federal" prosecutors it looks like this court is responsible for local civil and criminal matters in the District and not federal charges.

The District has 750,000 people. This court has a chief judge, 61 associate judges, 24 magistrate judges and 36 or so "senior" judges available.

That's a lot of black robes. Is this normal?

Goldenpause said...

There is no “similar offices” as DC is unique. Local crime is prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Fred Drinkwater said...

But Tom, reporting that information would have required the WaPo reporter to 1) do some actual research, and 2) know why it was important, and 3) care about informing readers.

Sounds like work. Much easier to essentially reprint a press release.

Michael K said...

I assume this does not affect the hundreds of federal political prisoners languishing in Garfinkle's Gulag.

Mountain Maven said...

Why I stay out of cities.

Critter said...

I cannot even imagine why DC would pass a law preventing officers from reviewing their own body cam footage while filing charges. That, it was for the obvious reason of reducing criminal charges.

Joe Smith said...

I feel terrible for conservatives who are affected by this.

Everybody else? Fuck 'em.

It's what they voted for...

n.n said...

I assume this does not affect the hundreds of federal political prisoners languishing in Garfinkle's Gulag.

Civil rights will not be tolerated and will be punished in excess of the law.

gahrie said...

I cannot even imagine why DC would pass a law preventing officers from reviewing their own body cam footage while filing charges.

It's so they can use discrepancies between the officer's memory and the film footage to punish them.

EdwdLny said...

Well, one wouldn't want to prosecute and imprison ones voters would they ?

Temujin said...

So...crime goes up and no one can figure out why?

Remove the two-parent family.
Dumb down the schools.
Preach segregation and new-age racism.
Open the borders to millions of low wage earners competing for jobs.
Open the borders to tons of drugs, including highly addictive ones.
Watch the crime go up. Refuse to arrest most of them.
Refuse to prosecute most of those arrested.

Why has the crime gone up?

H said...

"Graves said the declinations are mostly coming after arrests in cases such as gun possession , drug possession and misdemeanors — not in violent crimes."

Maybe this is the compromise way forward: Pass strict new anti-gun legislation, but never enforce it.

Josephbleau said...

The creation of a federal district was explicitly intended to prevent the federal government from being captured by a local civil government. Should a tinpot town hold government officers at petty risk? No.

If people choose to live in the federal district, they have less power over the federal government. Checks and balances, greater good, move away if you don't like it. Maryland and Virginia gave away your sovereign state rights to get the plum of nearness to power.

Josephbleau said...

"Civil rights will not be tolerated and will be punished in excess of the law."

That is the best FireSign Theater statement I have heard since 'Don't Crush That Dwarf'.

Big Mike said...

Maybe this is the compromise way forward: Pass strict new anti-gun legislation, but never enforce it.

@H, not quite. Gun laws are only enforced against normals and Republicans. In DC gangbangers have access to AKs capable of fully automatic fire. This does not bother Muriel Bowser or any other Democrat in the District.

And the DC gun laws are unimaginably strict. If the police search your car and find an empty cartridge casing, you are looking at — potentially — some serious jail time. I write “potentially,” because you might be a powerful Democrat or have connections to a powerful Democrat.

Doug said...

Stay the hell away from black people in large numbers.

Paul said...

Reap what you sow.

Where there is no law folks will make their own.

Sooner or later folks will get fed up and take the law into their own hands. Yes Vigilantes.

For if the law does nothing then the people will do something and to hell with the government.

Paul said...

Reap what you sow.

Where there is no law folks will make their own.

Sooner or later folks will get fed up and take the law into their own hands. Yes Vigilantes.

For if the law does nothing then the people will do something and to hell with the government.

Paul said...

Reap what you sow.

Where there is no law folks will make their own.

Sooner or later folks will get fed up and take the law into their own hands. Yes Vigilantes.

For if the law does nothing then the people will do something and to hell with the government.

BIII Zhang said...

The fact of the matter is that the expertise isn't there to win actual convictions, or gather evidence legally, or do proper discovery.

ANY defense attorney in Washington DC who pushes his client to accept a plea bargain is committing malpractice and should be sued by that client. Even if said client is guilty as sin. The government STILL has to prove it; and they likely cannot do that.

The government cannot afford to prosecute people. Period. Trials take LOTS of time and money that then doesn't go into the government employee pockets.

You can commit practically ANY crime against a normal victim and get away with it now because the government doesn't really care, and even if they did, doesn't have the expertise to prosecute you.

walter said...

"the city’s crime lab remained unaccredited"
Priorities.
" After the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, he said his office temporarily pulled about 15 prosecutors and staffers from D.C. Superior Court cases to focus on prosecuting the federal cases.""
Priorities.

Hey, how're we doing on nailing those pipe bombers?

traditionalguy said...

The Crime Lab cannot do the reality job required on evidence. Hmmm. I smell affirmative action tripled. I suspect they can’t find qualified Pathologists that are also gay black females who like doing hard work.

Narayanan said...

That's a lot of black robes. Is this normal?
===
hall monitors for 'let them have space to destroy'

Dude1394 said...

Lies, excuses and more lies. The democrat way.

Hassayamper said...

Maybe this is the compromise way forward: Pass strict new anti-gun legislation, but never enforce it.

You misunderstand the nature of anarcho-tyranny.

Those favored by the Democratic Party will not be subject to any enforcement of future anti-gun laws. They'll pass in and out of the court through a revolving door, if they are even arrested, and the Soros prosecutors will drop the charges.

Those disfavored by the Democratic Party will see these laws enforced with the utmost diligence and severity, receiving maximal sentences and confiscatory fines after languishing in jail for two or three years without a trial or bail.

I am coming to believe that the best thing possible for the United States is for the Democrats to fly their freak flag and make it clear to all of us what police-state enemy occupiers they really are at heart. Let them ban every gun, abolish the Bill of Rights, put children in foster care if their parents attend the wrong church or talk back to teachers, impose 80 percent taxes on everyone making a hundred grand or more, ban gasoline, ban more than one airplane flight a year, ban moving to a new neighborhood if it upsets a bureaucrat's notion of the right racial balance, and so on and so on.

Accelerate. Accelerate. Accelerate. Let's rip this Band-Aid right off. I don't want to grow old and die before I get a chance to have my revenge on these evil enemy scum.