Washington, D.C., police chief Robert J. Contee III is mad at the justice system. He said at a press conference that “the justice system we have right now is not functioning the way that it should. The courts are not open. That is a fact. Barely open. So cases from last year…they have not been disposed of, what do you think those individuals are?”
“I’m mad as hell about this,” Contee added.
Contee is referring to the pandemic measures of essentially shutting down the court system, leaving all but the most violent offenders to walk the streets.
Contee: “This was real for some people, but it has been happening in communities all across the city…You cannot coddle violent criminals…You cannot treat violent criminals who are out here making communities unsafe…What they make require is to be off of our streets.” pic.twitter.com/cCsEFun5Jf
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 23, 2021
The previous week saw two high-profile shootings occur in places that aren’t normally associated with gun violence.
An incident outside of Nationals Park last Sunday panicked thousands of people and sent them fleeing from the stadium. Then, gunmen shot two people in the 14th street neighborhood, popular with Washington’s elite for its tony restaurants and trendy bars.
“I’m saying to you, enough is enough,” Contee fumed.
Contee said that “most of the communities I’ve talked to have no clue what happens with these cases — they don’t.
“But I’m gonna tell you the truth,” he said. “The real issue is we have a vicious cycle of bad actors who do things, no accountability, and they end up back in [the] community.”
“But you cannot coddle violent criminals,” Contee added. “You cannot.”
Contee is definitely going off the Democrats’ “criminals are victims too” script.
“They might not want a job. They might not. They might not need services,” he said.
“What they may require is to be off of our streets because they’re making it unsafe for us. And if that’s what it requires, then that’s what it requires. And we have to own it. We have to own it. Because if not, we see more of this.”
As radical prosecutors demand bail “reforms” that release almost all criminals immediately and even violent ones soon after, communities are waking up to the social cost of these radical policies.
The Soros-backed states’ attorneys who advocate for no bail, lenient sentencing, and other criminal justice reforms are missing the point. It’s not incarceration numbers that are important. It begins and ends with accountability for criminals.
Contee’s remarks were hailed by the NYPD’s largest union, which said he was “echoing the thoughts of cops across this country.”
“We won’t turn the tide of violence until we start holding criminals accountable again,” the Police Benevolent Association tweeted.
D.C. police chief Robert Contee on rising crime in the city: “It’s unacceptable in any community…This should be shocking to the conscience of every person in our city. I don’t care where you live, it has the attention that it is gotten now b/c it’s happened where it happened.” pic.twitter.com/pNIvgBlI0l
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 23, 2021
It’s unacceptable in any neighborhood of any color. But nothing will change until residents of all colors realize the only way to stop it is to demand change and start treating criminals as a threat rather than people to be pitied.