Surge in deadly violence is dictating the agenda for D.C.’s mayor

[Recursion]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/surge-in-deadly-violence-is-dictating-agenda-for-new-dc-mayor/2015/08/22/7739fa7e-46cb-11e5-846d-02792f854297_story.html

But in Bowser’s first summer in office, a 36 percent jump in homicides has captured the mayor’s — and the city’s — undivided attention. Shooting after shooting has dominated the headlines and left Bowser (D) and her seasoned police chief searching for answers. The number of killings reached 101 early Saturday — nearly as many as in all of 2014. Nine occurred in the past eight days.

Washington is far from alone: Four of the nation’s largest cities, New York, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia, had recorded a rise in homicides by mid-July, and many more showed an uptick in gun violence. Baltimore, still reeling from ­riots over the in-custody fatal injury of a man this past spring, has recorded more than 200 homicides.

Still, a mayor who has been trying define her campaign promise to find new “pathways to the middle class” is now under fire for not doing more since day one on public safety — and for shifting explanations for the rising death toll. And with D.C. schools preparing to open Monday and police scrambling to prevent more killings, Bowser has found a new job No. 1 thrust upon her: calming a skittish public and slowing the body count.

“People want to know why there has not been a clear answer given, and that’s not to say that there is an easy answer,” D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said. “But first we were told by the mayor that it might be synthetic drugs or domestic violence, then it was illegal guns. Homicides are up. Not just up, but up by 30 percent. Layer over that changing explanations and it gives people cause for real concern.”

I remember DC back in the 90s, and I really don't want to see it go back to that.

[elleng]

1. Glad I'm not there now.

Sorry.