00:00In 2023, there were 219 homicides in D.C. Last year, in 24, there were 151. This year, at the same time, there are 113. So the homicide rate continues to go down. And since the surge, the homicide rate is down 67% in terms of the surge.
00:22So for all those people who say, oh, this is federal troops. No, this is angels coming in and saying-
00:29This is 50 or 60 people alive because of the surge.
00:32Because of the surge. I don't care who you are or what your politics are. Washington was not safe. It was, in terms of homicides in 2024, it had the fourth largest homicide rate in the country. And why is that?
00:47When you peel back the layers of the onion, you realize it's because the people in charge in D.C., for some reason, think that it's okay if you're 14 or 15 or 16 or 17. If you shoot someone, but you don't kill them, then I don't get to prosecute them. They don't come into the criminal justice system.
01:07So the first thing for me was to make a decision as to where are the hurdles? Where are we going to start? The first place is lowering the age of responsibility. In New York, recently, a 13-year-old charged with murder. When I was a D.A. in New York, I charged a 13-year-old with murder.
01:26Okay. I come to D.C., you can shoot people at 17, not kill them, and go to family court. I spoke to the girl that he was trying to protect the next morning. And the next morning, she told me that they were this whole throng of young kids. They were trying to pull her out of the car as big balls, the doge kid, was getting beaten.
01:48And she said, Judge, they were 12 and 13 years old. They were not 16 and 17. Fast forward. The case goes to family court. I cannot get it. It's not a crime over which I have jurisdiction. And the two 15-year-olds that were ultimately charged and brought to family court are out. It's over.
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