Why is America’s capital so violent?
In most big cities violent crime is declining. In Washington the opposite is true
Though he has a black belt in karate, when a trio of armed boys in ski masks threatened Henry Cuellar, a congressman from Texas, outside his Navy Yard flat on October 2nd he swiftly handed over the keys to his Toyota Crossover. It was the 754th carjacking in America’s capital this year, amounting to roughly three a day since January. And it was not the first attack on a member of Congress. In February Angie Craig of Minnesota heroically fended off a man who grabbed her by the neck in the lift of the building where she stays near the Capitol.
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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Crime and governance”
From the November 4th 2023 edition
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