Breaking the criminal justice system in D.C.

Donald Trump claims, against all evidence, that something is broken.

With great bluster, he breaks that something.

He then uses the thing he broke to prove he was right to begin with.

Given the stakes involved in any decision made by an American president, this is a particularly disturbing form of a self-fulfilling prophesy. 

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D.C. does not have the highest crime rate in the world.

Trump’s claims are not surprising. There is no factual basis for many of his stream-of-consciousness ramblings.  Most importantly, Trump is a narcissist.  Things only exist to the extent that they involve him.  He himself is in D.C.  Therefore D.C. is at the center of the universe.

According to Chatgpt.com, D.C. crime rates are far lower than in such cities as Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City or Caracas.

D.C. crime rates aren’t even the highest in the United States.  Detroit, Baltimore, Memphis and New Orleans all have higher rates, including for violent crimes. 

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And, contrary to Trump’s claims, the criminal justice system in D.C. is not broken.

Believe me.  Having practiced in Pennsylvania and Virginia courts, I can vouch for the superiority of D.C. Superior Court in every respect.   

The judges take the bench on time.  They know the rules of evidence.  They know the law.  They treat everyone with respect, including the people before them who have been charged with a crime. 

The prosecutors – both Assistant U.S. Attorneys and Assistant Attorneys General — are ethical and professional.  You can assume they are trying to do the right thing.

Probation officers and law clerks return phone calls and emails.  They actually care about the defendants. 

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Having won less than 7 percent of the D.C. vote in the last presidential election, Trump has now directed his torpid, vengeful gaze toward the District.  He wants to break all of this.  Because breaking things is what he does best.  

First of all, Trump has no standing to opine on anything having to do with criminal justice, in D.C. or anywhere else.

It is hard to sell yourself as the “law and order” president when you yourself have been convicted of multiple felonies. 

It is hard to claim that you “back the blue” when you incited, sympathized with and then pardoned hundreds of people who attacked police officers on January 6, 2021. 

More importantly, Trump’s efforts to eradicate crime in the District will prove counterproductive.

At first glance, flooding the streets with federal officers and national guardsmen might sound like a good idea.  It might suggest that we are finally getting tough on crime. 

As it is, as with so many things with the Trump Administration, bravado and showmanship substitute for reasoned analysis.  You might almost think they haven’t thought these things through.  Or maybe they just don’t care.  

Clients arrested for minor misdemeanors describe a confusing situation in which D.C. police and federal officers (including FBI, Park and Capitol police, and Secret Service officers) step all over each other in attempting to make a simple arrest for a traffic violation.

The government will have a duty to turn over all “discovery” associated with one of these arrests to the lawyer of the person who has been arrested.   Failure to do so will result in the case being dismissed.  Can you imagine the burden on the poor prosecutor who has to track down all of this information?

The recent decision by the U.S. Attorney’s Office to “paper” (that is, formally charge) every case that comes in will have equally dire consequences.

In the old days, well over half of these case would be “no papered.”  The intent was not to let criminals walk.  It was to conduct realistic triage with respect to which cases were worth limited governmental and judicial resources to pursue.    

Jamming up the courts with lousy cases is going to result in a tremendous windfall for criminal defense attorneys.  We will win the cases that have no business being in court in the first place.

More importantly, it will divert already strained resources away from the more serious cases that deserve prosecution.

D.C. Superior Court is already missing many judges.

According to Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is down over 60 prosecutors.  Edward Martin, Pirro’s predecessor, fired dozens of prosecutors who were assigned to January 6 and other cases he did not approve of.  Many other prosecutors have quit in dismay or disgust. 

The Public Defender Service has had its budget cut.

And the panel of defense attorneys approved to accept Criminal Justice Act (CJA) appointments has never recovered from the Covid pandemic.  Every morning there are urgent calls for attorneys to pick up cases for that day.

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As it is, this is a win-win situation for Donald Trump:  If the system collapses, he can say, there, I told you so.  If the system survives, he can take credit for fixing it.  More importantly, thriving on chaos and disunity, Trump is looking for any excuse to further suspend civil liberties.  

In the meantime, every citizen in the District will be the worse for these changes.  To paraphrase W.B. Yeats, the center cannot hold.  Things fall apart.  Woe to our country.