And more on violent crime dropping: An Urban Institute report from last November notes that in a survey of 161 D.C. youths age 14-21, nearly 17 percent identified themselves as being in a crew or a gang. But only 6.8 percent reporting having ever sold drugs, 6.2 percent stole goods over $100, 4.3 percent carried [...]

There have been a number of shootings lately in Shaw. This has touched off a lot of worries on the part of community leaders that a gang war has started up. Councilmember Jim Graham dashed off a letter to D.C. Police  Chief Cathy Lanier and others concerning these recent events.
Read the letter after the jump.

The Washington Post has a tiny brief on the back page of today's Metro section reporting that the Metropolitan Police Department has made an arrest in Monday night's fatal shooting on Quebec Place N.W. and another in Colombia Heights last month. 
Police charged Troy Renard Thomas, 18, of the 3000 block of Third Street N.W. , with first-degree [...]

Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch has identified Ryan Randy Trotman as one of the victims of Monday night’s shooting on Quebec Place N.W. 
Trotman, 28, of the 7400 block of 7th Street, N.W., later died of his injuries. The name of the other victim, a woman who was shot in the leg, is being withheld because she [...]

Today, the various crime bills are being debated as I write this item. You can read the complete and competing bills here. The Post has gathered up the pro and con surrounding the controversial proposal to take gangs or gang members to civil court. The Post writes:
The provision — drafted by the administration of Mayor [...]

Here's an interesting but not really shocking D.C. crime fact: The District is home to about 130 criminal street gangs and smaller crews, whose members are involved in a disproportionate number of the city’s homicides, according to the report “Responding to Gang, Crew and Youth Violence in the District of Columbia.”
Gang members make up more [...]

Even in these troubled economic times, some groups are thriving  – take organized gangs of shoplifters, for instance.
According to the National Retail Federation’s fifth annual Organized Retail Crime survey, nine out of ten retailers say they’ve been robbed by organized gangs in the last year. And, nearly three-quarters of the stores and restaurants surveyed say [...]

There's been a lot of grandstanding over the pending crime bill. Mendo has been particularly targeted in silly ways–at a press conference and at recent hearing. Now comes Muriel Bowser on Kojo with her own bit of fear mongering. (She's BSing right now! on gangs). Bowser argues that the police need better tools in dealing [...]

Good morning, City Desk readers, and thanks to everyone who came to City Paper's Christmas party–I hope your headaches are exponentially less painful than mine. And now some news:

In WaPo: The MPD has tied the death of 14-year-old Giovanni Sanchez to Mara Salvatrucha (also known as MS-13).
New Columbia Heights alludes to a new restaurant coming [...]