We've been covering rampant crime in Washington, DC for years -- not just because that's where we're based, but because our nation's capital city being infested with violent crime is a national disgrace. The government of the bluest city in the country, which wants to become a state, is responsible. "Criminal justice" and "equity" fetishes have poisoned public policy. Criminals are indulged and empowered, law enforcement is demonized and defanged, and victims are often discarded as inconveniences. In recent years, those victims have included members of Congress, senior political aides, and other prominent people, in addition to countless others with lower public profiles. Criminals have learned that they can often operate with full or partial impunity, especially if they outsource their violent crimes to minors. They've adjusted accordingly, leading to an explosion of precisely that phenomenon. We recently told you about an Afghan interpreter who escaped the Taliban after years of assisting our military in his home country, and who moved to the DC area in order to seek a better life for his family. Working as a ride share driver, he was carjacked and murdered by a minor in 2023.
Earlier this year, his killer was sentenced:
In 2023, an Afghan interpreter for US Special Forces (who’d escaped that country and moved to the DC area) was murdered during a carjacking. His teenaged killer just got sentenced: Three years in prison. https://t.co/4KKoCzJCO3
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) February 16, 2025
Three years. That light sentence isn't an outlier, either. It's the norm. Indeed, it's the law. Thanks to bleeding heart "criminal justice" and "equity" policies, minors can't receive long prison sentences, no matter what they do. So things like this keep happening, resulting in appalling, unjust outcomes:
“Criminal Justice” in left-wing DC: A ‘youth’ with FIVE pending robbery and assault charges then mercilessly beat a man to death. He’ll be out in a handful of years: pic.twitter.com/p1OyA2VjC3
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) June 11, 2025
A teenager will remain in a juvenile facility until he turns 21 for his role in the death of a 39-year-old DJ and hairstylist. A judge handed down the sentence in a D.C. courtroom filled with many of the murdered man's friends on Monday. The 16-year-old boy pleaded guilty in May to five charges in connection with the murder of 39-year-old Bryan Smith, a beloved DJ, barber, and stylist who was found on T Street Northwest in October 2024. The teenager did not react when Judge James Crowell read him the charges, which included robbery, felony murder, and assault. WUSA9 has agreed not to identify the boy due to his age...Police say the boy stole Smith's cell phone, which they later found in his possession...[The victim's mother] lost her older son, John, suddenly to a brain aneurysm just three months before Smith was murdered. She fought back tears as she told Crowell that Smith was the only one she had left to take care of her.
A family shattered. Friends stricken with grief. An innocent man's life stolen. And for what? And by whom? By this repeat criminal:
[The assailants] robbed and struck the 39-year-old Smith from behind so severely that he was left with severe brain damage and broken eye sockets...At the time of his arrest, the teen had five outstanding charges for robbery and assault — to which he also pleaded guilty. Crowell also noted that three years before the attack, the teen had a destruction of property charge when he was 12. Prosecutors in that case allowed the teen to enter into a diversion program in exchange for dismissing the case. “He was clubbed from behind, just so they could buy some fast food and a PlayStation. And it’s not the first time they’ve done this. How could this keep happening?” said Richard Murphy, one of Smith’s friends.Smith’s former roommate and co-worker Elizabeth Fletcher said she now has a fear of seeing groups of teenagers congregating in the city. “I remain in a state of shock that Bryan is dead because of young people,” she said. “Over and over again, he was allowed to remain out here, assaulting and robbing people. How is that possible?” The teen sat next to his attorney, staring straight ahead, never looking at the procession of people who tearfully spoke of Smith’s life.
How is that possible? It's a fair question from one of the murdered man's friends. The answer is that this is how soft-on-crime policies work. The people who make these policies believe criminals are the victims of an unfair system, and that aggressive punishment and enforcement of law is wrong. So they take a six-time offender, including violent crimes, and turn him back out on the street, over and over again. And when he graduates to murder, there's only so much that can be done. When confronted with his victim's anguished loved ones, the murderer sat stone faced, not even acknowledging them. "How could this keep happening?" another grieving friend demanded. Answer:
In the District, the maximum penalty for a juvenile offender is confinement in a youth detention center until age 21 or until officials with DYRS determine the youth has been rehabilitated and can be released to a parent or guardian.
This teenager committed five felonies before the murder, which he was free to commit, in spite of that lengthy rap sheet. And he'll be back out in order to celebrate his 21st birthday with a margarita. Because that's the law. Congratulations on all the "progress," yet again, Washington, DC voters and politicians. I hope you're proud.
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