Recall efforts launched in Washington, D.C. over crime policies supported by council members, including defunding the police.
By Eileen Griffin
Two members of the Council of the District of Columbia are facing recall efforts launched by Washington, D.C. residents frustrated with crime.
Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward One) is facing a recall effort after she continued supporting radical alternative justice programs despite an exploding crime wave, The Washington Post reports.
Forty-one-year-old business owner Diana Alvarez filed paperwork to initiate the recall process, hoping to remove Nadeau from office.
Alvarez cited the number of times she has experienced robberies at her business, along with the overall deterioration of safety and explosion of crime as her reasons for the action. In Ward One, homicides doubled from 2022 to 2023 under Nadeau’s leadership.
Nadeau has been a member of the council since November of 2017, the council’s website states. Early in her career, Nadeau’s job was training activists.
She is “a community activist at heart,” the website reads. “Brianne began her career at Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, where she trained student leaders and activists.”
Nadeau voted to reduce spending on the police department by $15 million in 2020. She supported allocating the money to “alternate justice programs” rather than to community policing.
In 2022, Nadeau voted for major changes to the city’s criminal conduct code. This resulted in lowering penalties for some violent crimes.
The efforts to reduce punishment for violent crime in D.C. supported by the city council members were eventually blocked by Congress, as Heartland Daily News previously reported.
“We’ve seen Brianne is not responsive to public safety concerns,” Alvarez told Axios.
Nadeau told Axios, “I have two small children. Public safety is top of mind for me, not only a council member but as a mom.”
“My business has been broken into three times in a two-week span, costing me hundreds, thousands of dollars to do repairs, to beef up my security,” Alvarez told Fox and Friends. “It’s just been really disheartening what’s happening right now in the city.”
“The people are just tired,” Alvarez said. “We’re tired of seeing the crime. We are hearing about it happening right at our front door. It’s just very unfortunate. We need better representation. We need someone that’s going to fight the crime and not enable it.”
“Washington, D.C. stands at a critical juncture, facing an unprecedented surge in crime that threatens the very fabric of our community,” the Recall Nadeau website reads. “The vibrancy and growth that once defined our neighborhoods is slipping away and has been replaced by chaos, violence, and broken glass. Rampant crime and lawlessness have gone unpunished.”
Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) is also facing a recall, Axios reports. Allen also supports the soft-on-crime policies.
Constituents Jennifer Squires and April Brown cite safety concerns in the recall petition they filed, The Hoya reports.
“Charles Allen’s D.C.: more violent criminals on the street, 509 fewer officers on the beat,” the Recall Charles Allen website says.
“In his tenure as Chair of Judiciary and Public Safety Committee (2017-2022), Charles Allen has systematically undermined the criminal justice and public safety system that made DC one of the safest big cities in America for more than a decade,” the recall statement reads. “Now, D.C. has one of the highest reported violent crime rates in the entire country, with 812 violent crimes per 100,000 people.”
“Instead of protecting the city, Charles Allen led the charge to open the jail doors and let out violent criminals—carjackers and people convicted of gun crimes—which directly led to the skyrocketing increase in violent crime rates.”
The crime wave in Washington, D.C. does not show any signs of improvement, CNN reports. Early in the new year, the city suffered shootings, carjackings, random violence, and theft. Even the upscale areas of the city are not immune to flagrant crime.
“Homicides, carjackings and robberies across Washington, DC, have affected prominent politicians and regular residents alike, leaving many in the nation’s capital fearful of the rising crime,” write Gabe Cohen and Rachel Clarke for CNN.
Juvenile crime has become a major concern. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public temporary emergency last November to increase monitoring of the city’s youth. Next, the city council plans to meet to discuss creating a new crime center to respond to crime in “real time.”
“It is remarkable to watch politicians come up with ‘solutions’ to problems that are a direct result of their previous solution, the DC Police Union wrote on X. “The most effective thing to do would be to repeal their previous ‘solution’ and reevaluate their positions.”
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