Category: Washington dc
DC police chief manipulated crime stats to make city look better, report claims
Resigning Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith deliberately manipulated Washington, D.C., crime data to appear lower, according to a new report.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s majority staff released an interim report on Sunday as part of its ongoing investigation into allegations that MPD leadership pressured commanders to alter crime stats. The committee launched the probe into the department in August.
‘Chief Smith should resign today.’
After interviewing seven acting MPD commanders and one suspended MPD commander, the committee found that the department’s leadership placed “a higher priority on suppressing public reporting of crime statistics than stopping crime itself.”
The commanders allegedly told lawmakers that “they were not only pressured, but also instructed, to lower crime classifications to lesser intermediate offenses in such a way that those offenses would not be included in the [daily crime report] reported to the public.”
Smith allegedly created a “toxic management culture” that propagated a “culture of fear, intimidation, threats, and retaliation,” the report read.
Lawmakers concluded that the MPD’s crime data remains at risk of manipulation despite Smith’s recent resignation announcement.
RELATED: Whistleblower alleges widespread manipulation of DC crime stats, fueling Oversight Committee probe
James Comer. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
“Every single person who lives, works, or visits the District of Columbia deserves a safe city, yet it’s now clear the American people were deliberately kept in the dark about the true crime rates in our nation’s capital,” stated committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.). “Testimony from experienced and courageous MPD commanders has exposed the truth: Chief Pamela Smith coerced staff to report artificially low crime data and cultivated a culture of fear to achieve her agenda. Chief Smith’s decision to mislead the public by manipulating crime statistics is dangerous and undermines trust in both local leadership and law enforcement.”
“Her planned resignation at the end of the month should not be seen as a voluntary choice, but as an inevitable consequence that should have occurred much earlier. Chief Smith should resign today,” Comer added.
Former Police Commander Michael Pulliam was placed on administrative leave in May and later suspended after he was accused of manipulating crime data. Smith stated at the time that the department was committed to immediately addressing “any irregularity in crime data.”
“Any allegation of this behavior will be dealt with through our internal processes, which will ensure those members are held accountable,” she declared.
RELATED: DC police commander under investigation for allegedly manipulating crime stats
Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
However, Smith announced her resignation last week, effective December 31. While she did not give a reason for her departure, some critics questioned the timing amid the ongoing allegations against her and the department.
These allegations against the department and its leadership emerged amid President Donald Trump’s warning that his administration would take over D.C. if its leaders failed to address the area’s crime crisis.
The MPD did not respond to a request for comment.
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Iran’s freedom fighters put America’s No Kings clowns to shame
Liberals in the United States keep pretending to “resist” a democratically elected president they smear as an “authoritarian.” Meanwhile, real resistance fighters push back against a real authoritarian regime — in Iran.
For well-to-do white liberals, “resistance” amounts to a bumper sticker, a hashtag, a chant, and a safe protest march. No American faces arrest for opposing President Trump or his policies. Police never cracked down on thousands of No Kings demonstrators. The government never shut down the internet. No American risks execution for demanding new leadership.
Partisan voices push the false claim that Americans must choose between sending troops or doing nothing. Anyone who actually listens to Iranian dissidents knows better.
Iranian dissidents face all of that and more. Their resistance carries the cost of blood, freedom, and life.
Last weekend, I saw real resistance up close. More than 1,000 Iranian dissidents gathered in Washington, D.C., for the Free Iran Convention to plan for a future free from the mullahs’ rule. Panels featuring scholars, women, young activists, and even voices from inside Iran painted a picture of a regime on the brink.
As the regime clings to power, it leans harder on censorship, torture, and public executions to keep Iranians living in fear.
This crackdown unfolds against an economy collapsing under its own weight. More than 80% of Iranians live below the poverty line. Inflation punishes the entire country. Unemployment keeps climbing.
The harsher the repression, the more Iranians recognize the only path forward is regime change.
In 2018, 2019, and 2022, Iranians took to the streets in nationwide uprisings. Thousands died. Tens of thousands went to jail. As 2025 unfolds, the question no longer asks if another uprising comes — only when.
The West now faces its own question: Will we be ready to support the Iranian people when that moment arrives?
Here at home, partisan voices push the false claim that Americans must choose between sending troops or doing nothing. Anyone who actually listens to Iranian dissidents knows better.
A third option exists — the one championed by Maryam Rajavi and the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a coalition that rejects both the shah’s dictatorship and the mullahs’ theocracy.
Rajavi, elected by the NCRI as president for the transitional period after the ayatollah’s ouster, puts it plainly:
Neither appeasement nor war, but regime change at the hands of the Iranian people and their organized, legitimate, and just resistance. We do not seek money or weapons. We only ask that this resistance be recognized.
This resistance already lives and breathes inside Iran. The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran stands as the largest and best-organized opposition movement in the country. Resistance units operate in all 31 provinces. They have carried out thousands of attacks on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij — the regime’s main instruments of suppression.
These units organize protests, strikes, and anti-regime campaigns. Their intelligence network exposed Tehran’s clandestine nuclear program and uncovered terrorist plots funded by the regime.
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Photo Illustration by Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
The cost has been staggering. Since 1981, the regime has killed more than 100,000 PMOI/MEK members. Countless others have been imprisoned, tortured, or targeted in state-funded smear campaigns.
The idea of negotiating with the Iranian regime belongs to the realm of fantasy. No meaningful difference separates so-called hard-liners from so-called moderates. Both factions produce economic ruin at home and terrorism abroad. Young Iranians see the truth plainly.
During the Free Iran convention, Seena Saiedian — an Iranian American and law student at the University of Virginia — captured the desperation:
The landscape for the youth in Iran is bleak: hyperinflation, high unemployment, censorship, repression. Iranian youth see no hope for moderating or reforming the current regime. By every metric, life gets worse. The root cause of every challenge Iran’s youth face is the current regime.
The Iranian dictatorship will collapse. History guarantees that. The only question: Will the United States shorten the Iranian people’s suffering or extend the mullahs’ reign of terror?
If we want a secular, democratic Iran — one capable of fostering peace in the region — we must say clearly that no negotiation can salvage the current regime. No deal will reform it. No diplomatic fantasy can tame it.
We must tell the Iranian people and the brave resistance units operating inside the country that the United States stands ready to recognize their efforts and their right to chart a future for a free Iran.
The United States doesn’t need to send money, weapons, or troops. The regime is already on the brink of collapse. The Iranian people are already mobilizing. They need moral clarity from the West — not silence, appeasement, or more excuses.
Supporting freedom against tyranny is the American way. It always has been. And standing with the people of Iran honors the moral foundations that built this nation.
‘Disruptive’ woman causes flight with 4 congressmen to divert: ‘We live in a fascist state’
A Tuesday American Airlines flight carrying several members of Congress was abruptly diverted over a “disruptive passenger.”
‘Law enforcement met the flight and removed the customer, and the flight later re-departed for DCA, where it landed normally.’
The flight took off from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Arizona and was en route to Washington, D.C. Roughly two hours and 41 minutes into the flight, the pilots diverted the plane to Kansas City International Airport.
U.S. Reps. from Arizona Greg Stanton (D), Eli Crane (R), Andy Biggs (R), and Paul Gosar (R) were passengers on the interrupted flight.
“Flying to DC rn to vote no on CR that fails to lower health care costs. @RepEliCrane, @RepAndyBiggsAZ & @RepGosar all on this flight,” Stanton wrote on X. “We’re making [an] emergency stop in Kansas City to remove [a] disruptive passenger. None of my colleagues is the disruptor. Freedom Caucus losing its mojo.”
Stanton thanked Kansas City police for “handling the situation professionally and without incident.”
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Rep. Greg Stanton. Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Adam Burtner, a passenger on the flight, responded to Stanton’s X thread with a video showing an unidentified woman being escorted off the flight by a police officer. Right before exiting the plane, she stated, “Sorry, folks. We live in a fascist state.”
American Airlines confirmed that the flight was diverted due to a “disruptive passenger.” However, the details of the incident are unclear.
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Rep. Andy Biggs. Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
“On Nov. 11, American Airlines flight 1218, with service from Phoenix (PHX) to Washington, D.C. (DCA) diverted to Kansas City (MCI) due to a disruptive customer,” the airline told KSHB. “Law enforcement met the flight and removed the customer, and the flight later re-departed for DCA, where it landed normally. We thank our customers for their patience and our crew members for their professionalism.”
Burtner claimed that the woman said she was removed for taking a photograph of one of the lawmakers.
“Since there is some confusion on what she said, it’s as follows: ‘I took a picture of someone and they didn’t want me to tweet it.’ (Picture of a congressman aboard the flight.),” Burtner wrote.
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