Early on a Sunday morning, shots ring out on the 1300 block of Connecticut Avenue — steps away from Dupont Circle, a New York Sports Club, and the city’s only Brooks Brothers.

A Canada Goose coat robbery on the Metro train, a point-blank afternoon murder at Union Station, a Dupont Circle stabbing in broad daylight and knife-brandishing hooligan terrorizing grocery clerks at Safeway — all these have taken place since the turn of the new year.

It’s lawlessness as usual in the District of Columbia.

Washington, D.C., bears an ignoble distinction among the developed world’s most murderous cities. To put it in global context: In 2023, the District saw its deadliest year since 1997 at 40 homicides per 100,000 residents — just behind Johannesburg and clocking in at three times the rate of narco capital Bogotá.

For most of us, it’s the........

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