A lifelong Washington, D.C., Democrat expressed outrage over a new report showing the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia declined to prosecute the vast majority of arrests made in the nation's capital last year.
D.C. neighborhood commissioner Denise Rucker Krepp (D) joined "Fox & Friends" as crime statistics in the city have soared in 2023.
"I'm pissed," Krepp said Thursday.
"We have 52 homicides this year, 42 sex abuse cases, 628 thefts of cars and 150 carjackings. So crime is going up overall by 22%. We have a U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., that is choosing affirmatively not to prosecute. That's problematic."
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U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, who was appointed by President Biden, declined to prosecute 67% of those arrested in the city in 2021. While critics argue Graves is leaving criminals on the street, he claims that the majority of the declinations are for nonviolent crimes, like gun possession, drug possession and burglaries.
Krepp has been an outspoken critic of escalating crime and the D.C. Council's attempts to overhaul the city's criminal code to ease penalties on certain offenses. Biden signed legislation last week that nullified the proposed changes, a move hailed by Republicans.
"I had an individual commit a carjacking in front of my house. I've had two men killed a block from my house in the past two years. And we have a U.S. attorney that's refusing to prosecute? Why?," Krepp asked.
"I know what I'm doing, and I'm going to look at [Graves] and go, 'No, I don't think you know what you're doing. I don't think you understand that people are terrified to walk out on their streets.'"
The stunning report came as the chairman of the D.C. Council testified in Congress Wednesday that there is no "crime crisis" in the nation's capital as House Republicans go on the offensive against the city's policing reform bill.
The testimony followed the brutal attack on a staff member for Republican Sen. Rand Paul, leaving them hospitalized for serious injuries after being stabbed by a man recently released from prison.
"When [D.C. Council Chairman] Mendelson was saying that yesterday, there was a double shooting with one person dying and there was a carjacking about a mile from the Capitol," Krepp responded. "So while he is claiming that there is not a crisis in crime in Washington, D.C., I open my door to a carjacking."
"We need to hold multiple hearings on the U.S. attorney and just demand a lot of answers right now," she continued. "Carjackings in front of people's houses, carjackings in front of the Capitol, murders in front of people's houses… we got to do better than this."
Fox News' Anders Hagstrom and Thomas Phippen contributed to this report.
