Washington, DC
Amid the recent orgy of violence across America, it was the carjackings that finally got me.
Lost amid all the mass shootings and gang slayings of late has been another wave of crime: vehicle thefts. In Washington DC, carjackings in 2021 were up by a third over 2019, while in nearby Alexandria a motorist made national news after he shot two boys at a gas station who were trying to lift his car. In Chicago, 1,900 vehicles were jacked just last year, which is eye-wateringly high even by that city’s grim standards.
There is an inhumanity at work in this country that’s as stark as anything I’ve seen in my lifetime
These thefts are almost all committed by teens, often at gunpoint. And whereas the point of a carjacking a decade ago might have been to sell off the parts for cash, the purpose now is better defined as ‘for the lulz’. Thieves have taken to posting videos of their ill-begotten prizes on social media.
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