CNBC host Joe Kernen pressed Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C. on Monday over the city’s crime rate, telling her that his daughter does not feel safe in the nation’s capital.
Bowser appeared on the financial network to discuss an agreement with Monumental Sports & Entertainment to keep the NBA’s Washington Wizards and the NHL’s Washington Capitals in the city through 2050 after initial discussions about moving the teams to Virginia. Kernen pressed Bowser on local crime after citing concerns from his daughter, who lives in the city. (RELATED: Kathy Hochul Defends Sending National Guard Into NYC Subways, Says Move Was Made To Address ‘High Level Of Anxiety’)
“My daughter’s there and I’m a nervous person already,” Kernen told Bowser. “So, she’s in her 20s. I already worry. She worries. She’s scared. She doesn’t feel safe. She had her place broken into. Someone got shot on her block, and she wanted me to just ask you. What’s the answer? Do you have a plan? Is it broken windows? Do you got to do more of that or more funding for police? What’s the plan? Should she feel safe in D.C., Mayor Bowser?”
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“Absolutely. This is what she should know: I just got an update from my deputy mayor and crime is down in all categories in Washington, D.C., especially those categories that so troubled us last year with robbery and carjacking, down more than 30%,” Bowser responded. “So we’ve done the things that we know will reset our public safety ecosystem starting last summer with an emergency crime bill, and most recently in, just a couple months ago, with a new crime bill that really will reset our public safety ecosystem.”
“So we feel very good that we’re moving in the right direction, not just with crime but with attendance up in our schools, with our population growing, with new restaurants opening, more per capita than any place in the United States,” she continued. “In fact, right in this very building this month, they will welcome 400,000 visitors, even with a sold-out show tonight. So people, like your daughter, are voting with their feet to live in the most exciting and important city in the world.”
Violent crime in the District of Columbia increased 39% from 2022 to 2023, but dropped 20% from 2023 levels to date, according to statistics posted by the Metropolitan Police Department. The city saw 274 homicides in 2023, compared to 203 through 2022.
Glad my dad got the opportunity to ask @MurielBowser what so many of my friends and my friends’ parents are feeling too. I do not feel safe in DC – none of us do. https://t.co/ZsCjAL4X0y
— Blake Kernen (@KernenBlake) April 1, 2024
“I do not feel safe in DC,” the younger Kernen posted to X on Monday.
A CVS store announced in January it would close because of teenage shoplifting.
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