D.C. Mayor Bowser Yanks Tweet Calling Carjacking ‘Crime Of Opportunity’ After Furious Backlash

Conservative News DailyMarch 29, 2021

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser deleted a tweet advising District residents how to avoid auto thefts after it was met with intense backlash and accusations that its timing was tone-deaf.

“Auto theft is a crime of opportunity. Follow these steps to reduce the risk of your vehicle becoming a target. Remember the motto, #ProtectYourAuto,” Bowser wrote in the since-deleted tweet, which offered viewers tips for ensuring their car won’t be targeted by criminals.

Some claimed the timing of Bowser’s tweet was in poor taste given the multiple carjackings that took place in the District last week. Mohammad Anwar, a 66-year-old Uber Eats driver, was fatally flung from his vehicle last Tuesday after two teenage girls, aged 13 and 15, flipped it while allegedly attempting to steal it. Graphic video of the incident went viral. Two teenage boys, aged 13 and 14, were arrested in another carjacking incident last Thursday.

As The Daily Wire reported of Anwar’s death:

A 66-year-old Uber Eats driver was killed earlier this week when he was thrown from his vehicle after two teenage girls allegedly carjacked him near Nationals Park in southeast Washington, D.C.

Mohammad Anwar died after police say two girls, aged 13 and 15, used a stun gun against him and stole his car before causing it to flip, according to NBC 4 Washington.

[…]

Graphic video taken by a bystander depicts the violent scene, which shows how Anwar fought with the girls before they drove off while he was still attached to the vehicle. They crash the car, and the video later shows Anwar’s body on the sidewalk as National Guardsmen help the girls out of the flipped vehicle. One of the girls can be heard saying something about her phone.

Anwar, who was working as an Uber Eats driver at the time of his death, was a father and grandfather with loved ones in both the U.S. and Pakistan, according to his family, who described the crime as “senseless.”

Incidents of carjacking have skyrocketed in Washington, D.C., during the past year, with rates more than doubling in 2020 compared to 2019. Homicides have also reached a 15-year high in the nation’s capital, for which Bowser is lobbying hard to become a state.

As The Washingtonian reported last December following the shooting death of a one-year-old:

187 people have been killed in DC this year, making the city’s homicide count the highest it’s been since 2005. The most recent death was last night’s fatal shooting of a one-year-old boy near the Prince George’s County border, after someone opened fire on a car occupied by the child.

That means there has already been a 20 percent increase in homicides in DC, and the year isn’t over yet. While overall crime is down 18 percent (mostly due to reductions in sex abuse, and general theft), numbers for some other violations have risen. Assault from a dangerous weapon is up 5 percent, and motor vehicle theft has jumped by 47 percent.

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