AMAC Exclusive – By Andrew Abbott
![](https://amac.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/mayor-bowser.png)
Throughout 2020, as riots and the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the country, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser courted a reputation as a far-left progressive icon, championing “Defund the Police” and stringent lockdowns. But now, following the disastrous consequences of those policies and a high-profile battle with the Democrat-dominated D.C. City Council, Bowser has been left in the awkward position of both calling out President Joe Biden and relying on congressional Republicans to save her city from ruin.
Earlier this month, Bowser made headlines by vetoing a crime bill passed unanimously by the D.C. City Council last November. The radical overhaul of the capital’s criminal justice system eliminates most mandatory minimum sentencing, reduces maximum penalties for crimes like robbery and carjacking, and provides opportunities for early release for violent criminals, including child sex offenders. However, the council overrode Bowser’s veto on a 12-1 vote, despite loud objections from both law enforcement and victim advocacy groups.
For Bowser, the veto was a complete reversal and admission of defeat following her embrace of the “Defund the Police” movement two years ago. D.C. saw some of the worst rioting anywhere in the country in 2020, violence that was only encouraged by Bowser in an attempt to lash out at former President Donald Trump. Even as multiple statues were defaced or toppled and many historic buildings and local businesses damaged and some even burned, Bowser called for less funding for police.
In another performative act that spurred on the rioters, Bowser also had “Black Lives Matter” painted in giant letters across two city blocks just north of the White House – another clear attempt to antagonize Trump. The city would ultimately spend millions of dollars making “BLM Plaza” a permanent fixture in the nation’s capital, even as the DCPD struggled to fill their ranks. Amid the worst of the riots, Bowser was forced to enact a curfew amid major property damage, but nonetheless maintained that the riots were “peaceful,” and even called on President Trump to remove National Guard troops from the city.
Unsurprisingly, Bowser was celebrated as a hero by the mainstream media for “sticking it” to Trump. But the harmful effects of her full-throated endorsement of lawlessness soon became clear in the following months and years, as crime in the District soared to historic levels. The number of murders crossed the 200 mark for the third straight year in 2022, up more than 25% from 2019. Carjackings and robberies also continued a sharp uptick. So far in 2023, robberies, arson, and other property crimes are up double digits from the same time in 2022.
While Bowser gave a free pass to rioters, however, she forced businesses and schools in the District to remain closed throughout 2020 and into 2021, devastating the downtown economy. As many states moved to lift lockdown orders, Bowser reiterated that people “should only be going out for essential work, exercise, food, medicine, and supplies” – even as she was caught breaking many of her own lockdown mandates, including traveling to hotspots, attending large gatherings indoors, and visiting family for holidays.
Once again, Bowser’s policies proved disastrous. Dozens of restaurants, the city’s largest movie theater, and multiple large corporate retailers closed their doors in 2022. In 2021, D.C. had the largest national percentage drop in population. D.C.’s downtown business area is now often a ghost town even in the middle of the work week, as prolonged lockdowns encouraged many employers – including federal agencies, law firms, and consulting companies – to move to an apparently permanent work from home model.
Things have gotten so bad that Bowser has even criticized President Joe Biden. In her third inaugural address earlier this month, Bowser called on the White House to “either get most federal workers back to the office most of the time or to realign their vast property holdings for use by the local government.” After being one of the staunchest proponents of pandemic lockdowns and work from home for two years, Bowser has now found herself demanding Democrats “get back to normal.”
In an ironic twist, Bowser’s most important allies in reversing the damage her own policies have done to D.C. may be congressional Republicans. Though the D.C. city government has a large degree of autonomy, Congress still has the ability to block its legislation. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), for example, has introduced a bill that would undo the recent changes to D.C.’s criminal code that Bowser attempted to veto, before being overridden by the City Council.
Though the measure appears unlikely to pass the Democrat Senate and be signed into law by President Biden, House Republicans could also include budget riders into funding bills that would effectively force the City Council to reverse itself. That strategy could put Democrats in the uncomfortable position of having to shut down the entire national government to allow the Council’s radical crime law to remain in place.
Republicans have also lent Bowser a hand in returning federal employees to the office through the introduction of the “SHOW UP” Act, which would require all federal agencies to return to their pre-pandemic work arrangements. Rep. James Comer (R-KY) the chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, has said he plans to bring the bill up for a vote soon.
Yet even as she increasingly finds herself aligned with congressional Republicans in opposing radical criminal justice “reform” and getting federal employees back to work, Mayor Bowser has continued to profess allegiance to progressive orthodoxy on virtually everything else – apparently failing to recognize the direct link between far-left policies and the crises facing her city. Until Bowser – or the voters of D.C. – make a true course correction, America’s capital city will likely continue to suffer.
Andrew Abbott is the pen name of a writer and public affairs consultant with over a decade of experience in DC at the intersection of politics and culture.
Who said “Crime doesn’t pay!” . . . This stupid DC mayor just wanted to prove that statement wrong and failed! Just proving that “You reap what you sow!”
Well, the residents of DC got what they voted for. I hope they are happy.
Washington, D.C.’s voter base is 96 percent Democrat, so the prospect for the voters of that city to change course and look for other alternatives to the defacto policies of the Democrat Party is ZERO. Mayor Bowser will be eventually replaced by another Democrat, who will champion the same disastrous policies as Mayor Bowser and all the Democrat Mayors before her. The people of Washington, D.C. will then complain, yet again, that “This is unacceptable and something must be done to “fix things””. All while the same idiot voters in the city keep electing Democrats espousing the same socialist policies. Elections have consequences. The people of Washington, D.C. just have to own up to their choices and accept the consequences of their actions at the ballot box.
Washington D.C. is becoming a crime ridden city? Um, ………… for the people not living in that Perdition on the Potomac River, who actually cares? Or for that matter, who really cares about the plight of the residents of any large Democrat run city?
As long as these cities fail to learn that communities absolutely need law and order, they deserve what they get. Reading about these crime centers is becoming vaguely reassuring. It validates the idea that a population center works best when everyone obeys the laws , …….. or else.
I do notvfeel.even a little bit bad for washington DC. You voted for democrats. You voted for crime. You voted to be attacked, raped, and murdered.. now live in the liberal utopia you built.
I truly hope every single person in washington DC gets a first hand experience of what they voted for and clearly want.
This is what the leftists do. In each and every place they’re in “charge”. Need more proof? Fine. Look at LA and SF, Chicago, NYC, Baltimore, Detroit, Minneapolis, Austin, DC, etc. etc. All big, blue cities. They create these catastrophes at the behest of their masters then start whining and crying about their plight, blame someone else and demand the taxpayers clean up their crap. The left destroys every. single. thing. they. touch. That’s in lockstep with the the devil’s lackeys ie. Soros Open Society Foundation (or whatever they call it), Schwabb’s WEF and all the “green globalist” masters…Hollywood, leftist academia and the MSM. I’ll be forever puzzled at the stupidity of the sheep that buy into this garbage.
I have no pity for DC or any other city run by liberal democrats….they got what they voted for. It is a shame and embarrassing that our national capital and most of our largest cities are liberal cesspools.
Their getting what the deserve if you support lawlessness that’s what you get. Poor leadership produces poor results! IMO
So sad, too bad. You vote in demo/socialists for governors and mayors since America began and this is what you get. How long does it take to learn. Duh? Go whine on some other shoulder.
Bowser is a low information Marxist who is actively contributing to high crime and a dysfunctional government. She is painfully inept, because she caters to the anti-American, anti-Trump constituents of her city. She is willing to destroy her city, just so she can stay in power at all costs.
Let the cesspool turn into a ghost town then rebuild it as an American city from the muck.
Choices have consequences. I prefer to just watch people stumble and fall all over themselves and others. Everyone knows best…so here they are…
She really showed Trump a thing or two by painting BLM on the street. He must have been deeply hurt!! Ha!
How do these people (somehow mentally deficient) get into office, again and again? The democrats keep hitting their thumb with a hammer (much pain) and keep thinking that if they hit their thumb one more time, it will stop hurting. Duh! Hello, its not working, folks!
The people who voted in this Communist trash deserve what they got !
Sadly the Sheeple never learn.
It’s hard to feel pity for people who voted for what they got. Bottom line, don’t visit DC anymore, it’s just not safe. Actually, the same can be said of any blue city/state
The chickens have come home to roost. If you propose lawlessness and give power to criminals you will soon be overrun. Trying to reverse all this freedom to the criminals and mandates to the people, in the name of equity, doesn’t work.
Too bad that the woke think on paper and not reality.
I won’t bring myself to feel any sympathy or empathy for democrats. They are the creators, owners, and nurturers of this violent, uncontrolled, liberal world. It’s unfortunate these master elitists are allowed to have private security while the rest of their sheeple are unarmed and unprotected. Big hugs!
Be careful what you vote for you will get it and more
Anyone who allows a terrorist group to deface a public street with their slogan (“Black Lives Matter) shouldn’t be in charge of anything. Not to mention refusing to accept the thousands of National Guardsmen which Trump offered her!
Our efforts should exceed beyond defeating this now hopelessly morally aberrant Democrat Party; we must neutralize the Left and everything and everyone associated with it.
As Charles Stanley says – you reap what you sow, more than you sow and later than you sow. Yesterday’s National Gathering for Prayer & Repentance is just the beginning of turning WDC back to the people.
What is the matter with this woman? Just who is she pandering to, or better yet, who’s back pocket is she in? This is the essence of insanity. I’m not sure how this current Democrat party got so far off the rails, but their “policies” are harming all of us. Just ask those of us who have to put up with Gov Whitmer!
She is another handmaiden of the devil.
These dems are like the old saying,you reap what you sew. Kyle L.
You Blacks should be so proud. After decades ,you finnaly got your black brother and sisters in high places, and looked what happened. Kyle L.
Good looking woman. Isn’t that what the public wants to see? She has it made.
ALL the Democrat run cities need to hit rock bottom before anyone will see the light of day. The crime will continue to increase and the residents suffer until it becomes too much even for them and then maybe the voters will smarten up and get rid of these horrors an rebuild.
I wouldn’t lift a finger to help them.
AOC should Face Consequences for Funneling Thousands into Communist Chinese Foreign Agent.
There seem no consequences for LEFT politicians. No one claims them but they just somehow win in the bastions of the LEFT. They only stand for woke but whine when things go wrong. Hoping the day of reckoning is near!
She must be related to the mayor of Chicago!
They all deserve it ????????????
She has been an idiot since elected! Libs never reason things out long term! Emotional moment and screw the result
ENOUGH with the outdated idea that people need to be in an office to get work done!!! Unless you have to work with something physical, there is NO VALID REASON to have to go to an office!
She is a disgrace. Though her actions lay bare the fruits of her ideology. Well deserved. Though at the end of the day DC residents are citizens of our republic. Unbelievable that her hatred of President Trump has led to the suffering of her constituents.
DC is a mess and it all starts at the bottom of the chain with the lowest boss on the totem pole, the Mayor.
They all point there fingers at the white people they hire these fancy lawyers but they need to do different they deserve what they get, all those that say Defund the Police now see what you have is chaos in the city hope those are happy with all that crime. Maybe time to change your mind set arrest the gangs and those that commit crimes there time to send them to prison instead of letting them go those that need to go to prison send them there show them that you have a backbone and get tough.
Another left wing nut job