SHOCKED NOT SHOCKED: Washington Police Officers Helping Feds Prove That Bosses Juking Stats

AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

One of the recurrent tactics used by defenders of the establishment is to trot out ridiculously biased--even faked--statistics to deny realities that we can see with our own eyes. 

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Crime stats are one of the favorite targets for the production of fake statistics, although economic numbers are also high on the list of falsified data. 

When Trump did the right thing and sent federal troops in to help clean up D.C. crime, Pravda Media, local officials, and Democrats all trotted out fake statistics that contradicted the obvious reality on the ground. 

Crime was DOWN! There is no problem at all! Washington was paradise itself, and only a liar like Donald Trump could possibly say otherwise. 

Yeah, well, we call shenanigans. It was BS, and Washington police officers who are tired of the bulls**t are helping Trump's people prove it. 

It's difficult to believe that anyone who cited the crime statistics actually believes they reflected reality, although I admit I can't see inside the minds of those who did. They could just be morons. There are, obviously, some people with IQs at the level of flatworms. Perhaps these were they. 

D.C. police officers are feeding information to the Justice Department as it probes accusations of manipulated crime data, according to the D.C. Police Union and five other people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an investigation in progress. The voluntary cooperation of about three dozen from the police force, according to three of the people, reflects long-standing frustrations about how violent crime is categorized by supervisors — and surfaces as public safety in D.C. continues to capture the president’s attention.

Some rank-and-file officers and detectives have complained for months — in some cases, years — that managers were recording serious crimes as more minor ones to make their police districts appear safer or avoid the ire of top department brass. Some kept lists, documenting cases where they believed a higher-up improperly classified a crime as a lesser offense. One such tally, obtained by The Washington Post, lists more than 150 instances since March 2024 where staff in a Southeast D.C. police district believed offenses were, at least initially, inappropriately classified.

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No doubt this is the tip of the iceberg. How many people have escaped arrest because officers knew that nothing would be done to punish them? After all, it takes a lot of work to drag somebody in, put them into the system, and document everything just to have the perps tossed out the back door because nothing will be done to them. 

And, of course, officers bring people in only to have their bosses manipulate the facts or the charging documents to ensure the stats look good. Unless there is a dead body, the bosses can do a lot to massage the statistics to ensure that the proper narrative is backed by statistics. 

At the heart of the Justice Department probe, and another by a House committee, is whether there has been a widespread effort to intentionally downplay crime on city streets. Criminologists say classifying crimes is an often subjective and evolving process: Incidents can be redefined as investigators uncover more evidence, and disagreements don’t necessarily point to corruption. In D.C., officers and supervisors have clashed over details such as whether an offense was a robbery or a theft, or whether a weapon used in an assault qualified as potentially deadly.

Some in the police force say these arguments are part of a pattern of manipulation by supervisors to achieve a long-term appearance of violent crime reduction. At first, the notes kept by officers were “not a politically motivated thing” and were instead an effort to prove what some officers saw as a persisting problem, one former detective said. Now, with separate investigations underway at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. and the House congressional committee that oversees the District, the long-standing concerns have found a receptive audience.

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You would HAVE to be an idiot to believe that there wasn't a conspiracy to juke the numbers. 

Hell, there probably is at least an implicit conspiracy to do so in just about every jurisdiction, if for no other reason than the people in charge want to look good. But in smaller cities and suburbs, the statistics matter less because people are more likely to have a direct experience of changes to conditions, while places like DC are run by people who can insulate themselves from decline until it gets really obvious. 

Internal gripes about crime data have existed for years in many police departments nationwide — including among D.C. police.

Years ago, female officers reported concerns to the D.C. Council that commanders were manipulating local crime statistics, said Lisa Burton, a former D.C. officer. They were “incentivized by monetary awards and/or recognition at weekly crime briefings,” she said.

Money buys you a lot of insulation. It isn't until Dupont Circle gets dangerous that rich people notice. And rich liberals don't give a rip about the hoi polloi unless an election is at stake. 

Small-town and suburban police departments can't easily sweep crime under the rug — crime stands out in a way that it doesn't in bigger cities, and statistics matter less than direct experience. In places like Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC, crime stats play a larger role in the discussion. 

That incentivizes lying. And lies are what we get. 

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Is anybody surprised? 

Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.

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