Murders Surge in DC; City Leaders Point to the Answer

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In Washington, DC, and New York, among some other major cities, murder has spiked this year.  Thus, as the Crime Report tells us in this story from mid-August:

A weekend mass shooting that wounded 21 and killed one signaled a 45 percent increase in shootings in Washington, D.C., this year over the same period last year, including 46 shootings in the past week, the Washington Post reports.

But fear not.  Washington’s leadership has an idea.The answer, you see, is to remove (or relocate or “contextualize,” whatever that means) the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial.

That would be for starters.  Other monuments fingered for the dust bin, in one way or another, would be those honoring Benjamin Franklin, George Mason and Alexander Graham Bell.  Here’s the start of yesterday’s NBC affiliate story:

More than 150 monuments, buildings and parks in D.C. have now been recommended for name changes, contextualization or removal because the historic figure they are named for is either considered a racist or doesn’t reflect the values of D.C. residents….

Twenty-one public schools are on the list, as well as 12 parks and recreation centers and seven government buildings.

Other names on the list with buildings or monuments include:

      • Alexander Graham Bell
      • Benjamin Franklin
      • Francis Scott Key
      • George Mason
      • Christopher Columbus

Mayor Muriel Bowser tasked [a blue ribbon commission] with making the recommendations after calls to rename Wilson High School and protests around the country.

Whether any changes will be made is yet to be seen. Some of the monuments are on federal land.

And no, I am not making this up.  The nation’s capital, a city in the throes of a months-long epidemic of gunplay and murder  —  violence that does grossly disproportionate harm to blacks  —  thinks the item in need of attention is the removal or re-naming of monuments, including two of the most beloved and iconic monuments in the country.

It’s often said that one of the reasons for the country’s current spike in violence is mistrust of the police.  As Kent and I have noted, this is point-blank false; the police are one of the most trusted of our institutions, and the great majority of African Americans want the present level of policing if not more, see this post.  But, as the priorities of DC’s leadership show, there is ample reason for citizens to distrust other components of civic “leadership.”