The Dishonest, Liberal Media Takes a Massive L — Trump’s DC Crime Crackdown Is Working

AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Critics of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on crime in Washington, D.C. were dealt yet another blow on Tuesday when Axios reported on its success in some of the capital’s most dangerous areas.

“Nearly half of non-immigration-related arrests during President Trump’s D.C. takeover have taken place in two of the most crime-ridden areas,” revealed Cuneyt Dil and Marc Caputo. “212 people have been arrested for various crimes during the federal takeover since Aug. 8, according to White House data that excludes all immigration-related arrests. 101 of those arrests, or 48%, took place in Wards 7 and 8, home to many low-income and working-class majority-Black neighborhoods of Washington. They have long experienced the most violent crime in the city.”

Dil and Caputo’s reporting cuts against a narrative — promoted by some professional Democrats in the media — that Trump’s decision to take control of the Metropolitan Police Department and deploy National Guard troops is an ineffectual stunt.

Just a few days into the federal intervention in D.C., The Washington Post published a story mapping the areas where National Guard troops and other federal law enforcement agents had been seen on social media or by reporters.  The initial map, which had only been updated as of August 15, showed a high concentration of law enforcement around the most famous areas of D.C., including the White House, National Mall, and other areas of the Northwest quadrant.

Those who have spent the better part of this month stewing over Trump’s crackdown jumped on the story despite its obviously flawed (Surprise! Elite journalists in Washington spend most of their time in the city’s nicest areas) method of collecting data.

“The @washingtonpost tracked where Trump’s forces are patrolling in Washington. Spoiler alert: They’re not where the crime is,” remarked The New York Times’ Peter Baker, who has all but hung up his credentials to act as a de facto DNC troll in recent days. Prior to complaining that federal authorities were not policing D.C.’s crime-addled neighborhoods, the apparently amnesia-addled Baker had insisted that the crime crisis there was “nonexistent.”

And when he wasn’t spreading misinformation about D.C., Baker was complaining about crime in blue cities within red states. To the shock of no one, he took care to use the phrase “red states,” but not mention the partisan makeup of those municipalities’ governments.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for any explanation from Baker — or for him to be held accountable by his employer.

NOTUS’s Dave Levinthal deemed the Post‘s worthless map “essential,” and treated it as definitive, insisting that authorities had “no reported presence in many of D.C.’s highest crime neighborhoods.”

And Robert Reich was, as is his custom, more shrill.

Naturally, none of the not-so-bright lights who took victory laps over the Post story have yet acknowledged the arrest data from Wards 7 and 8, or the plummeting crime statistics coming out of the capital. According to the D.C. police union, robbery is down 46%, carjacking is down 83%, car theft is down 21%, and as an overarching category, violent crime is down 22%.

There is reasonable debate to be had over how Trump is addressing the capital’s crime crisis. But by jumping from one dishonest narrative (“There is no crime problem!”) to another (“They’re ignoring the problem areas!”), some members of the press continue to embarrass both themselves and the party they pretend not to work on behalf of.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.