Capital Crime

Washington, D.C.

District of Columbia Police Chief Charles Ramsey declared a “crime emergency” in the nation’s capital last week, after a surge in violence that included 14 murders in July alone. The dead included a British tourist whose throat was slit in upscale Georgetown. Robberies and assaults have also become rampant, including a series of attacks on the normally tranquil National Mall. The emergency declaration gives Ramsey authority to deploy extra patrols to the hardest-hit neighborhoods. “You can’t make sense of it because it doesn’t make any sense,” he said.