by An Atlantic staffer asked why President Biden was “attacking democracy” after signaling he would sign a resolution ending a crime bill in Washington, DC that would have eased penalties for violent crimes, including carjacking and burglary.
Adam Serwer pointed to Biden’s apparent double standards when he endorsed his support for Washington DC’s self-government while opposing a proposal voted for by the DC Council.
“If you only support self-government for jurisdictions so long as they don’t make decisions you oppose, you don’t really support self-government,” Serwer wrote.
A night view of the Capitol Building dome in Washington DC on October 20, 2022. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Biden tweeted his support for “DC statehood and ‘home rule’ on Thursday, but said he supports “some of the changes the DC council has tabled over the mayor’s objections — like lowering penalties for carjacking,” not.
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In January, the DC Council voted to override Mayor Muriel Bowser’s veto on comprehensive criminal justice reform. Bowser expressed concern about the bill and said so would “The already overstretched capacity of the court system will be exacerbated; and it would reduce maximum penalties for violent crimes such as carjacking and robbery.”
The Revision of the Municipal Criminal Codeoriginally written in 1901, contains reduced maximum sentences, the abolition of almost all mandatory minimum sentences, and expanded rights to a jury trial for those charged with misdemeanors.
DC Mayor Muriel Browser listens during a safety briefing at the Marion S. Barry, Jr. Building on July 28, 2021 in Washington, DC. – The US capital is experiencing a crime and gun violence spate that left a 6-year-old girl dead on July 16. Bowser described a multi-pronged approach to combating unacceptable levels of gun violence. (Photo by Olivier DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)
In February, the GOP-led House of Representatives passed a resolution by a vote of 250 to 173 to have Washington, DC’s code update rescinded.
Serwer said the move is “just the latest episode in a long history of the federal government’s disregard for DC’s right to govern itself.”
He also argued that “a long-standing hostility to the idea of home rule in DC stems from a belief that black people are incapable of self-government.”
“However, this argument has continued even as the city’s black majority has become a plurality: DC cannot be allowed to govern itself because its constituents might make decisions that its overlords will not like,” Sewer wrote. “In some states legislators who couldn’t count to 20 without taking off their shoes put on a show by passing idiotic and cruel laws that violate the most basic rights of their constituents, but no one ever suggests that voters who… voted, the democratic self is denied – determination as a result. The people of Washington, DC have no less right to manage their own affairs than the people of Texas or Florida.”
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Washington Metropolitan Police Dept. shared this photo Jan. 22 showing police presence at the US Capitol two days after the inauguration (Washington Metropolitan Police Dept.)
The staff author added that Congress’s decision to step in and overrule the DC Council’s move only illustrates why DC should be granted statehood.
“DC deserves statehood because its residents, who outnumber Wyoming and Vermont, have their own political and cultural identity and have the same right as any other American to choose their own destiny,” Serwer said. “City residents should be able to govern themselves without politicians buffing their reputation with their performative disdain for the people who actually live and work there.”
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Some Senate Democrats, including Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.V., have Linguistic support for code reversal Revision.
“I don’t support that. I mean, I want to lock people up, I don’t want to let them out,” Manchin told CNN on Monday. “I was not informed of this, but from what I know of it, I would vote to overturn it.”
