Crime Capital and Nation's Capitol.

DC wants the return of its crown as the homocide per capita capital of the country. When I lived there in the seventies and eighties, a murder a day was the average. Then, perhaps, Roe vs. Wade culled the criminal core of genetically or culturally crime-prone individuals, leading to a decade and a half surcease more or less of the murder-rampage on the Potomac. Perhaps the crack wars of the early nineties thinned the ranks of perps, pervs, and druggies enough to give WashDC time to breathe again between gunshots.

As the WaPo story linked above notes, often it is the bystanders and the visitors who suffer from the crime-prone DC denizens. But Marion Barry, always ready to excuse the nasty citizenry who elect him, and Eleanor Holmes Norton, who when designated Congressperson-without-a-vote had to explain why she had not paid taxes over a preceding decade, sadly represent the kind of moral and ethical washouts many of DC's residents prefer to represent them.

Ever wonder why DC's prospects for eventual statehood keep receding into the far future?