The title of this week’s offering comes from Julius Caesar’s Chronicles.  After the 47 B.C. battle of Zela, Caesar famously proclaimed “Veni, vidi, vici,” “I came, I saw, I conquered.”  I was reminded of this quotation when President Trump federalized the D.C. National Guard and deployed federal law enforcement officers to the District of Colombia to combat out-of-control street crime.

Much like Caesar, Trump came to D.C., he saw the rampant street crime and the proliferation of homeless encampments on the streets of the the Capitol of the most prosperous nation on the face of the Earth, and was appalled by the sight.  Trump was unwilling to stand idly by while the nation’s Capitol descended into chaos and squalor, so he decided that it was necessary for the federal government to conquer the city’s crime problem, which is exacerbated by a toothless police department and inept prosecution authorities.

Surprising no one, Democrats are incensed.  They are absolutely shocked, shocked, that the President has dared to intervene in the affairs of the capitol federal district.  Their indignation, of course, ignores the fact that a president has, not only the right, but the duty to see that the laws are enforced everywhere, including in the District of Columbia.  Here’s how that works.

Article I, section 8 (17) of the Constitution provides for the creation of a capitol federal district, to be the Seat of the Government, and to be formed by cessions of the various States.  D.C.  was formed from lands once part of Maryland and Virginia, and consists of 61 square miles of land and 7 square miles of water.  The Congress has control over the District and over all federal properties in the various States.

The President is Commander in Chief of the armed forces, and of all State militias (National Guards) when they are called into the service of the federal government.  Though it’s not a State, D.C. has a National Guard, but one would be hard pressed to argue that the constitutional provision giving the President control of State militias doesn’t apply equally to the D.C. National Guard.  Indeed, because D.C. is uniquely under the control of federal authorities, a better argument would be that the President may call the D.C. Guard to federal service on his own authority as Commander in Chief.

Now, in 1973, Congress passed the D.C. Home Rule Act, which ceded some legislative and administrative powers to the District.  D.C. got a Mayor and Council, but not full autonomy.  Congress reviews all Acts of the City Council, and it may vote to rescind D.C. laws by a simple majority.  In other words, there can be no Senate filibuster.  Congress last did that when the D.C. Council voted to repeal mandatory minimum sentences for violent crimes, and to downgrade crimes such as carjacking.

Carping Democrats have claimed that Trump’s actions were unwarranted, citing statistics that suggest that crime in D.C. is down.  As I recently noted, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics.  That observation applies here.  The Democrats citing these statistics know full well that a D.C. police official recently was dismissed for tampering with the stats to make it appear crime was under control.  In fact, the murder rate in D.C. is twice that in Bogota, Colombia, three times the rate in Mexico City, and 30 times the rate in London.

How does that compare to neighboring States?  Well, at 27.4 murders per 100,000 residents, the D.C. murder rate is triple that in Maryland (been to Baltimore lately?), and 4.5 times higher than the rate in Virginia.  The only logical conclusions to be drawn from these stark numbers is that crime in D.C. was out of control, that the local authorities either couldn’t or wouldn’t do their jobs, and that somebody needed to step in to keep the peace.  Enter Donald John Trump.  Paraphrasing Dean Vernon Wormer from Animal House, I can almost hear him saying, “The time has come for someone to put his foot down, like no foot has ever put down before, and that foot is me.”

The President was egged on in this fight by newly confirmed D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro,  who almost nightly, has taken to the airwaves to decry D.C.’s lax criminal laws, especially as they apply to juvenile offenders, who are responsible for a good portion of the crime, yet are rarely prosecuted, due to anemic laws, and a local prosecutor who is on record as saying, “You can’t arrest and convict your way to lower crime.”  If that sounds stupid to you, it’s only because it is stupid.  The paramount goal of criminal law enforcement is deterrence.  When crime has no consequences, the crime rate has nowhere to go but up.

The juvenile crime problem is especially acute in D.C., because local laws prevent most juveniles from being tried as adults.  This is insane, given that most carjackers are juveniles, and carjacking is considered (everywhere outside D.C.) as the most serious violent crime other than homicide and sexual assault.  To have such lax laws in D.C., which was carved out of Maryland and Virginia is nothing short of ridiculous, not to mention reckless.

Picture this.  A 17 year old carjacker jacks a car on Central Avenue SE in D.C.  He is treated with kid gloves, and if prosecuted at all, gets a slap on the wrist.  About 100 feet across Central Avenue, and into Capitol Heights, in Bluer than Blue Maryland, the same crime exposes the little bastard to a 30 year prison sentence.  The message to the juvenile offenders, and to the people who employ them is very simple, “Do your carjacking in D.C.”  And the message was received, because from 2018 to 2023, carjackings in D.C. went up by 547%.

How is the Trump effort going?  Since August 8th, nearly 500 arrests have been made, and more than 70 homeless encampments have been cleaned out.  The denizens of the encampments were given two choices.  Go to a shelter and get treatment, or go to jail.  Since Trump intervened, carjackings are down 46%, and robberies and all other violent crimes are down 22%.  Pretty good, but they still hate that it was Trump who did it.

As far as long term solutions go, that is a different picture.  Congress can get off its ass, and repeal the lax D.C. laws.  They can do that with 50 votes in the Senate.  Failing that, the D.C. Home Rule Act may need to be amended to curb the suicidal instincts of the D.C. Council.  A more radical fix could be to do away with the District entirely, and return what is now D.C. to Maryland and Virginia.  The Constitution doesn’t require a federal district to be created, it says “Congress may” create it.  And there’s precedent for that.  In 1846, the City of Alexandria, then part of D.C., was formally ceded back to Virginia.

Under this plan, the federal government would still retain control over all the federal buildings in the former D.C., just as it does over any federal property in any of the States.  The interesting question would be what would become of the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution, which gives D.C. three electoral votes in presidential elections.  The Amendment likely would be null and void.  Maryland and Virginia might each gain one House seat.

The flap over the federal takeover of D.C. law enforcement is just one more example of Democrats who continually jump on the wrong side of every issue.  Trump is trying to promote public safety and clean up the filthy and dangerous Hellhole that is the District of Columbia.  The United States can’t exercise its influence as the leader of the free world if it can’t clean up and control violent crime in the seat of its own government.  No reasonable, thinking American would oppose that position.  Democrats, however, are unreasonable, and they’re still not thinking past the policy of, “Whatever Trump’s for, we’re against it.”