For Immediate Release
July 12, 2023
Contact: Chantal Fuller, Communications Director
202-355-8431
cfuller@dccouncil.gov  

                                              Councilmember Henderson's Remarks from Tuesday's Legislative Meeting on the Prioritizing Public Safety Amendment Act

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Washington, DC- Councilmember Henderson made the following remarks during Tuesday's Legislative Meeting:

"We have seen so much unimaginable loss in our city due to a rise of gun violence and crime. I’m not just talking about the loss of life, but for many of residents, the loss of feeling safe just doing basic things – going to a barbecue, driving through a neighborhood, taking the Metro. This has had ripple effects across communities and our city. To curb this tide of violence, we need cross-agency collaboration and partnership from all community stakeholders. We ALSO must advance measures that can take the temperature down in our some of our communities, so that diversion and violence interruption programs can actually take hold and work.

This bill has the potential to do just that – but I want to be clear, this is not the first act by legislative branch on crime. The Council passed the NEAR Act which established the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement; we started the hospital-based violence interruption program to stop cycles of trauma; we’ve funded expanded out-of-school time opportunities, keeping recreation centers and libraries open longer; and we’ve supported major investments in MPD, including expanding the cadet program to put more homegrown officers in our communities.   

I deeply care about all individuals being able to live, work, play, and simply exist in environments free of all forms of violence, physical and non-physical. I also deeply care about ensuring that we are not perpetuating the same mistakes from the 80s and 90s passing laws that explodes mass incarceration in the name of an uneasy peace. This bill strikes a balance.  

I appreciate that Councilmember Pinto reached out to members to seek input on areas of concern. I raised a couple of issues that made me apprehensive to support this emergency, and those were addressed through her proposed amendment. I am going to vote in favor of this bill today acknowledging that it will not solve all of our issues. Accountability alone is not prevention. We still must have effect diversion and violence interruption programs, solving cases and swift arrests when an incident occurs, and actually seeing successful prosecutions. Legislation IS NOT required to provide authority for any of our government partners to do better on any one of those fronts.  

Further, we must begin to acknowledge and truly tackle issues that overlap with our spike in crime, like our city’s corresponding spike in drug use and overdoses. In 2014, DC had 83 opioid-related fatalities. Last year, we had 458 – that’s on top of the 3600 plus drug overdoses that occurred in the District where the individual survived. When people talk about our need to address the underlying issues that lead to crime and violence, this is one and I don’t think we talk about it nearly enough.

Today’s bill is not the end. We have much more work to do."

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