Most updated action: https://actionnetwork.org/events/dont-throw-dc-under-the-crimnibus-week-of-action

Currently, ‘violent crime rates’ in DC are in the local and national spotlight, with endless op-eds, press conferences, tweets, congressional reps, business owners, and more raising alarm and calling for government action. We cannot deny the fact that there has been an uptick in violent acts in the District. But we can and should challenge the misconception that expanding prosecution, pretrial detention, and other forms of criminalization would address this violence. What we need, as public policy experts and directly-impacted communities have known for decades, are solutions that address the actual root causes of violence.

Last year, Mayor Bowser and Councilmember Pinto, the chair of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, introduced numerous pieces of legislation that harken back to the racist 1994 federal crime bill and are deeply rooted in punishment and mass incarceration. Now, Pinto and the Mayor have combined these terrible bills into the Secure DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024, or “the crimnibus”. This is an underhanded tactic to push all the harmful provisions through the Council at once while avoiding any additional hearings that are open to input from the general public. We can’t let this happen! On Jan 17th, the Judiciary Committee voted in support of the bill and now it will go to the full Council for review.

• Expand pretrial detention
  • Despite data showing time and again that it is ineffective and can even increase crime.
• Expand surveillance.
  • E.g., by reviving drug-free zones, where people can be searched without cause, a practice that was ended 2014 for being potentially unconstitutional, and allowing evidence from GPS devices to be admissible in court regarding guilt, providing police with more chances to engage in abusive surveillance.
• Expand police power.
  • E.g., by expanding vehicular pursuit, the practice that resulted in the deaths of Karon Hylton-Brown and Jeffrey Price.
• Curtail transparency, accountability, and oversight over MPD.
  • E.g., by allowing officers to review their body camera footage before writing reports, making it easier for officers to construct false narratives.
• Expand and create new crimes

The DC Council must abandon the outdated “crime” framework. Crime does not mean harm! Crime is any conduct that is made illegal (criminalized), and that’s it! Many crimes are harmless, and many harms are perfectly legal! Policing and incarceration don’t actually address or reduce harm; in fact they increase it because police officers are often the ones inflicting violence on community members with impunity. By funneling over half a billion dollars to MPD every year, while neglecting our most vulnerable community members, DC continues to create the conditions that generate violence. The safest communities have the most resources, not the most police.

Please take a minute to send an email to the DC Council to say – Don’t Throw DC Under the Crimnibus! #UsNotCrimnibus