Patterico's Pontifications

6/11/2020

D.C. Mayor Responds To Critics: Budget Recognizes All Parts Of Public Safety, Including Policing

Filed under: General — Dana @ 12:17 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Mayor Bowser in Washinton D.C. finds herself in a bit of a pickle these days. Facing pressure to defund the police, the Mayor explains why she believes her budget addresses the current concerns highlighted by recent protests:

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser responded Monday to criticisms and calls to defund the police that have been made by protesters marching through the District in the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis.

She said D.C. has been reforming its police department for nearly two decades.

“We’ve been on the pace of reforming our department for the last 18 years; we’ve had the commitment of wonderful police leadership,” Bowser said. “This department is different than many places in the country because of that steady pace of reform over the last 18 years.”

Bowser said the budget she submitted focuses on public safety and added that money for D.C. police has increased slower than for social service agencies.

“We saw a 12% change in investments in (the D.C. police) since 2015,” Bowser said. “DHS, our Department of Human Services, has seen a 75% change. Likewise for schools, both (D.C. Public Schools) and public charter has seen a 40% change. (D.C. Healthy Families), which handles a lot of our health programs, has seen a 21% change. (The Department of Behavioral Health) that handles our mental health programs has seen a 15% change. The Office of Victim Services, in the last five years, has seen a 90% increase in funding.

“So, I just want to be very clear that the budgets that we have sent to the council over the last five years have recognized all parts of public safety, policing, but certainly intervention and opportunity programs,” said Bowser.

During an interview with NPR, Bowser answered a question about whether she will be reconsidering her budget submitted last month, which increased police funding:

Not at all. What our budget proposal, and I can’t speak for other departments, but they fund the people that we need. And certainly we wouldn’t want the people on our forces not to have the proper training or equipment that makes for better community policing. And I think you also have to look at the context of our entire budget. I’ve been mayor for five years. We’ve seen police spending increase 12% in those five years. At the same time, our population has increased and our calls for service have increased. If you look at our safety net programs, they have increased 75%. And I’m talking specifically about human services and homeless services.

Chief of Police Peter Newsham echoed Bowser’s comments:

“We have been on a path to reform for policing in Washington, D.C., since 2002,” Newsham said, before addressing some of the history of the department.

“For those of you who were here prior to 2002, you’ll remember a series of articles about the D.C. police that came out in 1999, where they painted the D.C. police as using more excessive force, shooting more rounds, poor investigations, everything soup to nuts, which painted MPD in a negative light,” Newsham said.

He added that the U.S. Department of Justice got involved and found a pattern and practice of using excessive force.

After several years, D.C. police came into compliance with an independent monitor, according to Newsham, with the monitor finding that the department “was committed to fair, unbiased and constitutional policing.”

“That is something we are very proud of,” he said.

In spite of her critics, Bowser is sticking to her guns with regard to police funding:

…my budget doesn’t fund it a penny more than we need and certainly not a penny less.

Last week, Bowser faced public criticism from President Trump after she demanded that he remove military personnel and federal law enforcement sent to her district during the George Floyd protests:

Bowser told ABC News that the president’s criticism of her only served to draw more protesters to her district.

Also, concerning the rumors that she is being considered as a possible running mate for Joe Biden, Bowser remained the politician that she is:

“Angie, you already know, I have the best job in Washington, D.C.,” Bowser said with a smile when asked if she was being considered as Biden’s running mate.

Angie asked again and got a more definitive answer.

“I haven’t, Angie, but I know that we need a change,” Bowser said. “We need to change the senate and we need to change the White House. That’s what I’m going to be spending my time — making sure that we get that word out in Washington, D.C. and I certainly will help in any way that I can.”

–Dana

12 Responses to “D.C. Mayor Responds To Critics: Budget Recognizes All Parts Of Public Safety, Including Policing”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (0feb77)

  2. Hello, Dana.

    Kudos to Mayor Browser for not knuckling under to the crybully demands, but I give her zero credit for conflating spending more budget money for making real progress. But I’m sure she created a lot of cozy and well-paid bureaucrat jobs, so in the eyes of the Democrat Party she’s been successful.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  3. The pot calls the kettle black. The most incompetent President ever.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  4. It’s nice to know that when Trump is voted out, all this crime, city and police corruption, riots, looting, cancel culture, warlord zones, urban politicians and public unions seeking votes by demonizing innocent people etc……..all that will just be a thing of the past.
    _

    harkin (9c4571)

  5. If Bowser is like every other DC mayor, she is probably under investigation for corruption right now.

    Hoi Polloi (7cefeb)

  6. 1) You need to remember that DC votes 91% democrat in EVERY Presidential Election since 1996. Period. Even in 1992, when Bill Clinton got only 43% of the vote nation-wide, DC voted for Clinton 85%. Mondale got 41% in USA, 85% in D.C.

    2) DC Mayor Marion Barry was arrested in 1990 and charged with three felony counts of perjury, 10 counts of drug possession, and one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to possess cocaine, even though the cocaine belonged to the government informant. After serving 6 months in jail, Barry was RE_ELECTED mayor in 1994! BTW, after he left office in 2000, Barry FORGOT to file his Federal Income Tax Returns for 7 years. IN 2014 he had his drivers liscense suspended since he had $2,800 in unpaid tickets for speeding and parking violations accumulated since 2012.

    So, don’t expect much from Bowser or DC. We also need to do something about holding trials for Federal officials in DC. When you’re a WHite Republican, then DC with its 91% D voting record is NOT a “jury of your peers”.

    rcocean (fcc23e)

  7. rcocean (fcc23e) — 6/11/2020 @ 1:03 pm

    Don’t you know Barry was set up? He said so himself.

    Hoi Polloi (7cefeb)

  8. Stephanie Morales is the Commonwealth Attorney for Portsmouth, VA. People should start calling her office and demanding those thugs who killed an unarmed Black man be charged with Second Degree Murder.

    Pinandpuller (36e714)

  9. Frnakly, the US Capital should have been moved out of DC a long time ago. It made sense in 1790, when almost all the US Population lived on the East Coast and was split evenly on the Mason-Dixon line to have the Capital there. But, now 1/2 the country lives West of the Mississippi, and DC is completely unrepresentative of the Country but in location and demographics. In the 1920’s there were proposals to build a new Capital in Colorado or near KC Kansas. Too bad, that didn’t happen.

    rcocean (fcc23e)

  10. Don’t you know Barry was set up? He said so himself.

    Today, he’d be a poster child for police Brutality. Mitt Romney would love him.

    rcocean (fcc23e)

  11. Some common sense still breaking out:

    “ In the midst of head-spinning talk about defunding police or abolishing them entirely, it’s important to step back and take a sober look at the debate. The racial dimension of policing is vexing because the racial dimension of American life is vexing. It is the deepest scar in our history. We treated it indecisively in forming our new nation and finally confronted it, at gruesome cost, in a great Civil War. We confronted it again a century later, after the failure of Reconstruction and decades of Jim Crow laws, during the Civil Rights Movement.

    Despite those efforts and significant progress over the past half century, we never eliminated racism completely. We are facing it again today. The laws of the mid-1960s ensured de jure equality. Since then, the struggle has been to create a more equal society in practice. It’s difficult to even agree on the meaning of that term, much less achieve it. For some, equality refers to outcomes; for others, opportunities. Whatever the meaning, it must mean equal treatment by police. There’s no disagreement about that fundamental point.”

    For those who experienced the racial upheavals of the 1960s, it should be obvious that racism is far less prevalent in all aspects of American life today. That includes policing. It may not seem that way, though, because our time horizons are too short. Most Americans alive today didn’t live through that era, so they haven’t witnessed the gradual but unmistakable improvement.

    Where does this historical legacy and today’s deep ideological divisions leave the current debate? The elephant in the room — the deeply discomforting but undeniable truth — is that poor black communities are the country’s most crime-ridden. People there suffer more crimes, most of them committed by other members of the community.

    Policing that community is the hardest challenge of modern law enforcement. The victims are reluctant to work closely with police because they fear retaliation (from street gangs, especially) or social ostracism if they “snitch.” Far too many crimes go unsolved because witnesses refuse to come forward. Police, for their part, see these communities as hostile and dangerous. The result is a vicious cycle of enmity and mistrust between police and the local community. It’s hard to break that cycle, despite the best efforts of good police, politicians, preachers, and community organizers.“

    Police and Race: Hard Problems and Hard Truths

    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/06/11/police_and_race_hard_problems_and_hard_truths_143422.html
    __

    Read it all
    _

    harkin (9c4571)

  12. Harkin –

    Thank you for posting a link to that article.

    John B Boddie (f44786)


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