VIOLENT DC CRIME IS THE SYMPTOM, NOT THE CAUSE: Even with the widely-ballyhooed reduction in crime in the District of Columbia since 2023, the violent crime rate remains so high that the nation’s capital is a seriously dangerous place for residents and tourists alike, according to Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins, himself a former police officer.

“Even after the recent drop, D.C. residents still face a one in 19 probability of being a crime victim each year. That’s 5.3 percent — double the 2.5 percent risk in Chicago. By any objective measure, our nation’s capital remains one of the riskiest cities in America.

“President Trump’s move was neither arbitrary nor unnecessary. But here’s the reality: taking control of a police department that city leaders have pressured to coddle criminals rather than enforce the law may address the symptoms — but it won’t cure the underlying disease,” Perkins writes in The Washington Stand.

The underlying disease is the destruction of the traditional, father-headed family. More than half of D.C.’s children grow up in single-parent households and it’s virtually always the father who isn’t there, at double the national average. Social Science research has for decades documented the terrible impact on children and American society of absent fathers.