Washington, D.C.
District of Columbia Police Chief Charles Ramsey declared a crime emergency in the nations 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 cant make sense of it because it doesnt make any sense, he said.