How the Democrats ruined Washington DC

When thinking of Washington DC, grand monuments and museums might come to mind, however, in recent years, America's capital has become more renowned for its growing homeless population and rising crime.

“Crime here has exploded, people do not feel safe,” Isaac Smith, an Emergency Medical Technician in DC, told The Telegraph for a documentary film about the capital.

“I have a bullet hole through my living room,” Mr Smith continued.

“I hear gunshots frequently and I live right next to an elementary school. There’s a bullet hole in one of the [school’s] windows.”

Violent crime in DC has risen by 10 per cent since 2022, which includes a 15 per cent increase in homicides.

Mr Smith blames the Democrats, who have dominated the city’s local politics for decades, for the rise in violence.

“At the end of the day, they don't believe that people have agency. They don't believe that people have free will; So people do not act, they are acted upon.”

Muriel Bowser, the Democratic mayor of the city, will be hosting a Public Safety Summit on Wednesday to engage with locals on how to tackle the increase in crime.

The mayor has been at loggerheads with members of her own party after she vetoed plans to soften penalties for violent criminals earlier this year.

The plans were pushed through by the city council despite the veto, however, they were ultimately blocked by President Biden and the US Congress.

Washington DC has also experienced a 12 per cent increase in homelessness in the last year.

Homeless encampments have appeared across the city, including at some of DC’s most famous landmarks such as Union Station and near the Washington Monument.

The rise in homelessness and crime has led some to leave the city.

Boris Ryvkin, a former resident of DC and a Republican advisor, says he moved due to poor local government services.

“I left DC because of taxes, crime, terrible public services and just terrible government,” Mr Ryvkin told this newspaper.

“The city council and the mayor have completely failed and I joined the exodus of hundreds of thousands of people literally just across the river to Virginia and Maryland,” he continued.

Washington DC is far from the only city in the United States to see an increase in homelessness.

“What's happening in Washington DC and in other American cities in terms of homelessness is basically the same thing that's happened in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Vancouver, other progressive West Coast cities,” Michael Shellenberger, an independent journalist who has written about San Francisco’s recent drug epidemic, told The Telegraph.

He continued: “You have very progressive members of the city councils, of the governing bodies of those cities, that have decided that certain laws should not be enforced against people deemed to be victims.”

“So you've seen city council members in Washington DC have demanded that people be allowed to camp illegally on the sidewalks, [and] not be required to come inside to shelters.”

“That's even though we know that you're three times more likely to die as a homeless person if you're living outside, unsheltered, than if you're inside.”

“So when you see this increase of tents around places like the train station, around subway stops, it's almost always because there's some political momentum behind not enforcing basic laws.”

Watch the full film above.