Senate Votes to Block DC Crime Laws Transcript

Right now on WUSA News at 11:00, lawmakers in Congress have once again decided they know better about D.C. law than the leaders D.C. elected to office. I’m Leslie Foster.

And I’m Lorenzo Hall. Less than four hours ago, the Senate voted to block changes to D.C.’s criminal code. So the next stop, President Joe Biden’s desk. The President has said he will not veto this, he’s going to sign off on it, and that means D.C.’s new criminal code will not become law.

The Senate voted to block this measure 81 to 14. Critics think it goes easy on crime. Supporters think D.C. should be able to pass their own laws.

By the way, D.C.’s crime laws haven’t been fully updated since Congress wrote them back in 1901. So you might be asking what happens now? The D.C. Council has to go back to the drawing board and come up with some changes.

And as D.C. leaders take another look at overhauling the whole criminal code, Mayor Muriel Bowser says she’s not waiting around.

No. She talked about her next steps and she and Chief Conti walked the Petworth neighborhood tonight. Our Raphael Sanchez Cruz was there.

Tonight Mayor Muriel Bowser saying she plans to present new public safety legislation that’s separate from D.C.’s criminal code in the next 30 days.

You have to have consequences if you use a gun.

Ahead of her safety walk through the Petworth neighborhood, Mayor Muriel Bowser said, the district is lacking on accountability amid arising crime throughout the district.

There have to be consequences if you’re throwing an old lady off a bus. There have to be consequences.

Providing scant details, Bowser says she’s drafting new legislation to address safety concerns, and announced that she’ll be hosting a public safety summit on April 1st to strategize a plan moving forward.

No police presence.

Mr. Dorse said telling the Mayor he wants to see more officers along Georgia Avenue, when students are walking to and from school. D.C. Police Chief Robert Conti says, he’s increased community patrols in the Petworth area in the last month and a half, but argues policing is only part of the solution.

The best way to keep our community safe are to make sure that we’re keeping bad, violent people incarcerated.

We don’t want to go to mass incarceration.

Some violence intervention activists have been calling on stricter penalties for criminals following a rash of shootings that have injured innocent bystanders. At the same time, the D.C. Council is considering bills that would keep school resource officers and increase a number of MPD officers, by offering those officers that can retire a bonus to stay an additional five years. In Northwest D.C, Raphael Sanchez Cruz, WUSA9.