After a congressman was carjacked, violent crime in the nation’s capital is back in the spotlight

On Monday night, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, was carjacked by three armed men a mile away from Capitol Hill.

“Three guys came out of nowhere and they pointed guns at me,” Cuellar told reporters on Tuesday. He described them as young men who wore ski masks.

“I do have a black belt, but I recognize when you got three, three guns. ... So they said they wanted my car. I said, ‘Sure.’ You’ve got to keep calm under those situations. And then they took off.”

He said he wasn’t harmed and the police recovered his belongings — including his car and phone.

“I’m a big law enforcement person. I got three brothers in law enforcement, so I certainly appreciate the good work that the police did,” he said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the event “unacceptable” and added that President Joe Biden had a chance to talk to the Texas representative. “We are thankful to the law enforcement to have reacted so quickly,” she said.

Other lawmakers and staffer have been attacked in the past

This is the second violent crime against a member of Congress in the nation’s capital this year. Back in February, Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., was assaulted in the elevator of her apartment building in Washington, D.C., and suffered bruises. The 26-year-old attacker pled guilty in court after the incident.

A month after Craig was attacked, a staffer for Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was stabbed by “a strong, athletic young man” outside a Mexican restaurant in the city.

The streak of violence extends well beyond Capitol Hill. Washington, D.C., has already surpassed 200 homicides this year. These numbers are close to the violent crime wave in the 1980s and 1990s, as Axios reported.

City Council Member Brooke Pinto, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said that in most cases, violent and property crime is up from 2022, including robberies, up by 66%, and motor vehicle theft, up by 106%, according to the NBC News.

“Many residents express fears of leaving their homes. They’re worried if they or their children go outside, they may be victimized, or worse, not be able to come home that night at all,” she said.

Youth crime — a cause for concern in Washington, D.C.

The city’s acting Police Chief Pamela Smith testified in front of a city council committee on public safety in late September. She said she was concerned about youth crime, including carjackings.

“In 2023, almost two-thirds of arrests for carjackings were youth under 18 years of age,” Smith said. “While the overwhelming majority of youth have no involvement in crime, when some youth as young as 12 are engaging in carjackings and other dangerous crimes … it’s clear that the current strategies are not an effective deterrent.”

In her testimony, Smith said the D.C. police department is down nearly 500 officers, which is why she is leading an effort to ramp up recruitment.

How should violent youth crime be dealt with?

But Smith’s efforts alone can’t address the trend, especially if Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb is pursuing a different approach, as suggested by a Washington Examiner editorial.

The opinion piece cited Schwalb’s response on a general candidate questionnaire, where he said: “I do not believe we make our city safer by arresting and locking away youthful criminal offenders, nor do I believe we can arrest and prosecute our way out of crime problems,” he wrote.

In April, the attorney general was asked whether teenagers should be treated like adults when they commit violent crimes, gunpoint robberies or carjackings. Schwalb replied: “I don’t think kids should be treated as adults.”

“Kids are kids, and when you’re talking about teenagers in particular, their brains are developing, their minds are developing, and they’re biologically prone to make mistakes,” he said.

Meanwhile, city Mayor Muriel Bowser launched a pilot program that enforces a curfew on young people from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. If a teen is caught loitering in the streets, they will be dropped off at the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services until the parents are located.

“We want our kids home, we want them safe, and if they’re not — we want families working with us to get their kids the help that they need,” Bowser said.