Jeanine Pirro reveals DC police officers manipulated crime stats to make city appear safer
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., is also addressing a separate investigation involving 13 D.C. police officers accused of distorting crime data to make the city look safer than it was. She said accurate crime reporting is essential for directing police resources and protecting victims, noting that serious offenses such as assault with a dangerous weapon were allegedly downgraded to less severe classifications.
In a different case, federal prosecutors said Wednesday that 14 people have been charged in an alleged crack and powder cocaine trafficking operation that sold drugs near an elementary school in Washington, D.C. Authorities said the dealing often took place in broad daylight, in front of young children, as part of what they described as an open-air drug market.
A federal indictment alleges that all 14 defendants took part in a conspiracy to distribute 280 grams or more of cocaine base and 500 grams or more of cocaine within 1,000 feet of Hendley Elementary School in the Washington Highlands neighborhood, an area officials say has long struggled with crime.
Prosecutors said the drug sales regularly unfolded in view of school-aged children traveling to and from class, exposing them to repeated illegal activity and raising concerns that such behavior could become normalized.
“This is poison that is being peddled during the day within feet of a schoolyard where our children learn, play, and grow,” Pirro told reporters. “Selling cocaine near our kids isn’t just illegal. It is an attack on the most vulnerable in our society. It endangers the children.”
Authorities also released an image they say shows a woman conducting a drug sale in Washington, D.C., just feet from a 5-year-old girl who had accompanied her. The Justice Department said more than a dozen people tied to the alleged trafficking network have now been arrested and charged.
