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--:-- Georgia Howe: Good morning, I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Saturday, February 10th, and this is an extra edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Joining us now to discuss the rampant crime in our nation's capital is attorney and former D.C. Neighborhood Commissioner Denise Rucker-Krepp. Denise, thank you so much for coming on.
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: Thank you for having me today.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, first off, Denise, you were formerly a D.C. Neighborhood Commissioner. How did you get involved in that role and where in the city do you live?
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: I got involved after a neighbor of mine was violently raped. I was an elected official my first year, and based on my legal training, I went to the Department of Justice and said, how many rapes in the city are you prosecuting? And then when they pushed back, I filed a Freedom of Information Act request, and then when they pushed back again and said, no, we don't keep it, I worked with some friends of mine and sued them.
--:-- John Bickley: That's quite a story. Crime is not partisan. It should never be viewed as partisan. And I don't even say that as being a Democrat who served in the Obama administration. I partnered with Senator Grassley, a Republican, to get the information that I needed. And Senator Grassley taught me a very important point, and that is the power of the purse. And that's the power of Congress.
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: So Grassley went to the Department of Justice and said, well, if you want me to confirm the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and you want him to be permanent, then you will share the information. And that's really what forced the Department of Justice to share the information in 2016 was Congress.
--:-- John Bickley: That's fascinating. And I think that's something that can happen today. But we have members of Congress, Democrat and Republican, could very easily go to the Department of Justice, since we are beginning the authorization of an appropriation season, and say, if you want your money this year, you will start sharing information about what you're prosecuting.
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: If you want us to give you the money for the prosecutors here in Washington, D.C., then you will tell us what you're prosecuting. And if you don't, then, well, you don't need a budget. And that's something I think we should all be encouraging.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, what is the hesitation with regard to prosecuting something like rape? What reason do they give for not wanting to do that?
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: They don't. They don't. With my neighbor's case, I sat in court and I had some very frank conversations with the Department of Justice. And I said, you will prosecute this case. You will ensure that the individual, he was a serial rapist, goes to jail. And they did. To their credit, the Department of Justice did their job. The guy was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
--:-- John Bickley: And then you know what the D.C. Council did? They wrote a piece of legislation that then amended the court decision and said that the individual serial rapist would be eligible for early release after 15 years. So all he had to do was serve one-fourth of a sentence. Again, why?
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: It's mind-blowing. So speaking of new crime policy, D.C.'s city council just put together a massive new public safety bill. It's called Secure D.C. What's in that bill, and do you expect that it will make D.C. more safe?
--:-- Georgia Howe: So we'll call this part two. And I'd say we're going to call this part two because last year the D.C. Council attempted to pass a bill that had a lot of, well, very bad language in it that was very helpful, I guess we'll say, to criminals. And that's why the House vetoed it and the Senate vetoed it, and the president vetoed it.
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: And then they've waited another year. And in that year, in 2023, there were 959 carjackings and 6,829 car thefts and 3,470 robberies and 274 homicides. And that then spurred them to write a piece of legislation that was going to be, well, 180 degrees different than Part 1.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So that's why I call this Part 2. Part two includes provisions that crack down on crime. I view it as an improvement, but there is very honestly a provision in there that troubles me. And this provision would require the D.C. Council, and you guys aren't going to believe this, but they're doing this. They're going to put into law that they are going to be required to put a convicted felon on the D.C. Sentencing Commission.
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: So it's not a victim, but a convicted felon. So that's one of my objections to this piece of legislation is that they're putting into law that they are going to be required to put a convicted murderer or rapist on the D.C. Sentencing Commission.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, I'm just processing that. That is an interesting provision that they've decided to add. Hopefully the community can decide which convicted felon. And so 2023, it sounds like, was the deadliest year in D.C. since the late 90s. I'm pretty stunned by some of the statistics that you shared. What do you attribute this rising crime to?
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So how did we end up here? Well, it was a combination of factors. First, we had a D.C. council that was writing laws that were very friendly to individuals who were committing armed and violent offenses. They were saying, you know, hey, you're under the age of 26. We think your brain is still forming. Therefore, because you're under the age of 26, you are going to receive a lesser prison sentence.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, let's talk about car theft. It's up 82 percent and it's predominantly being perpetrated by young people. First off, what is the age range of people that are engaging in this and why is it such an appealing crime for those young kids?
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: Okay, so let's talk about carjacking thefts. So there were 148 in 2018. Then we jumped to 485 in 2022 and 959 in 2023. So again, 148 in 2018, and by 2023, we're 959. Wow. Why? Because we have prosecutors that aren't prosecuting. We have a D.C. attorney general that thinks he shouldn't be prosecuting juveniles. He's diverting cases.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And we have a U.S. attorney that's not prosecuting and giving no excuses. He's just not prosecuting. Now, recently, he said that he's devoting more resources. And my thought was, well, congratulations. Why didn't you think it was important after 485 carjackings in 22? Why did we have to go up to 959 in 2023 before you devoted more resources to this problem?
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: Now, when you see numbers grow that rapidly, it kind of makes you think of a professional crime ring. Or is this just kids knowing they can get away with it? Both, to be honest with you, it's both. When you're telling a juvenile, and when we're talking about carjackings, we're not talking 18-year-olds, we're talking 12, 13, 14, 15-year-olds, that they can go and carjack and nothing's going to be done, then they're just going to do it again.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I mean, I'm a mom of two kids and I'm very wise to their ways and if you don't hold them accountable, if you don't tell them what the line looks like, then they're going to cross right over it. And that's what's happening. We have D.C. juveniles that are being told by adults that their brains haven't been developed. And because they haven't been developed, then we're not holding them accountable.
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: And I'm going to push back on that thought process because I think a 10-year-old, a 12-year-old, a 14-year-old who steals a car and carjacks knows what he or she is doing. They're just laughing all the way to the bank about the adults who are saying that they're not old enough to understand.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now 900 carjackings is that enough that the average citizen who owns a car in D.C. is actively concerned or has it not reached that point yet?
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: Oh, we're there. We're there. You can go anywhere in D.C. without somebody talking about carjackings. Go to church, carjackings. Have dinner with friends, talk about carjackings. Drop your kid off at school, let's talk about carjackings. You know, I learned about Mike Gill's death Saturday night when I had the MPD helicopter flying above my head because there were two armed carjackings in my neighborhood Saturday night. It's a regular occurrence.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So D.C. is unlike other cities in that their laws come under federal jurisdiction. How does that affect the police's ability to police?
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: It doesn't. It's not the feds that are impeding the police. It's the D.C. Council. The D.C. Council cut their budget. The D.C. Council has made it very well known that they don't support NPD. So if you are a young man or woman who's interested in going in the police, why would you come to a city where the D.C. Council doesn't like the institution you want to join?
--:-- Georgia Howe: And if you are in for 15 and 20 years and you are seeing your budgets cut and you're being asked to work overtime, which means that you're not spending time with your family because the D.C. Council cut the budget and is hobbling your institution, Why do you stay?
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: It's not federal law that's hurting the police. It's the D.C. Council and the lack of support that they've given the police over the past 10, 15 years.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, how much support does the city council get from voters in the city? I understand you mentioned that you're a Democrat. D.C. is one of our bluest cities. Would you say the average voter feels the same as you, or would you say it's pretty mixed?
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: Mixed, but I think beginning to be more like me. More and more people are becoming victims of crime. So when you, you know, I'm going to do some rough math here. So if you're at 270 more homicides, 3,470 robberies, 6,829 car thefts, 959 carjackings. Gosh, that's going to put us up at, we'll go for about 11,000 crimes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If we're talking about, and just those four, we get to 11,000. That means everybody knows somebody. This isn't somebody that you don't know, somebody you haven't heard of. This is your next door neighbor. This is somebody you go to work with. This is somebody you go to church with. It's hitting everyone. That's when more and more people are talking about it. And quite frankly, that's why there are recall efforts against Charles Allen here in Ward 6.
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: Democrats are now taking on their own and recalling them. Now for listeners who aren't in D.C., who is Charles Allen?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Charles Allen is the council member for here in Ward 6, Capitol Hill. And up until last year, he was chair of the D.C. Council Judiciary Committee, and he was the one that led the efforts to weaken laws dealing with crime here in D.C. He's the one that said, it's OK, you can commit rape and murder and still be eligible to come out after 15 years. So neighbors are fed up and they've started a recall effort.
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: So there's a strong possibility that at the end of this year, Charles Allen will not have a job because Democrats are upset with him. It's not Republicans. It's Democrats.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yeah. All right. Well, Denise, thank you so much for coming on and thank you for all the work you're doing.
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: You're welcome.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And can I just make one last statement?
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: Sure.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Rape is a crime. And I had to be that blunt, but rape is a crime. It's not being prosecuted in Washington, D.C. and we have a D.C. council that is actively helping rapists.
--:-- Denise Rucker-Krepp: That was Denise Rucker-Krepp, attorney and former D.C. neighborhood commissioner. And this has been an extra edition of Morning Wire.
