Longtime Santa Barbaran Experiences “Out of Control” Crime in D.C.
By Peggy Sands Orchowski
Santa Barbara was my home for 55 years. But in 2000, I decided to move to Washington D.C. to pursue my career in journalism (that started in South America and then at the Santa Barbara News-Press). I bought my cozy four-rooms-on-four-floors townhouse in Georgetown and despite the many differences in lifestyles between East and West coasts, I love living and working here as a fully credentialed Correspondent in the U.S. Congress and as the Senior Reporter for the only local newspaper, The Georgetowner. I return at least twice a year to Santa Barbara to be with my twin sister, lifetime friends, and to enjoy all the comfortable familiarity of home.
Now I’m getting calls from friends asking if I’m OK in the “crime out-ot-control” crisis that President Donald Trump is determined to fix here in D.C. My first reaction – based on years of covering the local community councils’ crime initiatives – was “What crisis?” We have almost no gun murders in Georgetown (although to be honest, they are a nightmare in black neighborhoods of D.C. that no one wants to talk about). Nor do I see gangs of raging youths on the streets of Georgetown.
Of course, there has always been crime in D.C.: cars vandalized, packages and purses stolen, people assaulted in daylight even. But in the past four years, I have to admit all of these “normalities” have increased in Georgetown. Experts say this is because new D.C. laws have greatly reduced the number of police officers who patrol the neighborhoods as well as have loosened judicial punishment for “youth offenders” (up to 26 years old) who enjoy almost instant release and no consequences.
Crime has cost me a lot of money the past four years: twice-smashed windows on my car – two weeks apart; stolen purse requiring total replacement of all house and car locks, everything; the tire lugs lock key stolen causing a long tow to my mechanic to unlock the wheels to fix a flat tire; and numerous packages stolen from the front porch.
Plus, in my neighborhood we have woken up to the sight of cars sitting on bricks with all four tires gone; and entire shelves of goods at Safeway and CVS a few blocks away swept clean by organized snatch gangs of untouchable teenagers under the eye of frustrated employees under management orders to just let them go.
Now, many products are locked up (like bottles of Tide).This week the fear of it all hit me. I was in my kitchen about 9 pm preparing to take two large garbage bags to the bin sitting on the sidewalk in front of my house–less than five steps from my front door. My roommate and two friends insisted urgently that I must not go out in the dark because I could be attacked. I’ve noticed they lock all the doors (car and house) the minute they step away.
Maybe even in Santa Barbara people lock their house and car doors now. But in D.C. the caution has evolved into paranoia. So now I must agree crime is out-of-control in D.C.! Almost everyone I’ve interviewed here in Georgetown (FYI: 95% of the D.C. electorate voted for Kamala) say they are “relieved” to have the surge of police presence on the streets 24/7, with full support from the Mayor and the D.C. police. Only a few “far out lefties” call it a “storm trooper military takeover of D.C.” The crime that affects Georgetown most – theft from autos and porches and vandalization of automobiles and homes—has fallen to almost nothing for the past 30 days.
The message is clear: when laws are honored and enforced and the offenders punished, the crimes end quickly. The same with illegal immigration.
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FYI: see Maureen Dowd’s Aug 18 op ed in the NYT:
This Op/Ed to the Santa Barbara Current from long-time Santa Barbara resident, former SBNP staffer, Montecito Journal columnist, and now fully credentialed Congressional correspondent and book author covering immigration in D.C. since 2007, was written on September 3rd, 2025.
Peggy (Margaret) Sands Orchowski accompanied her Op/Ed with the following note to us:
“Hi Jim: Congratulations! on founding [along with James Fenkner and Bonnie Donovan] the SB Current. Wish we could have such a paper of diverse opinions and analysis in Georgetown. Usually, I write about immigration, but I thought your readers – many connected to D.C. and who know me – would be interested to hear how it is for a longtime Santa Barbaran here in the nation’s capital at this time.
Peggy is Senior Correspondent for The Georgetowner (peggy@georgetowner.com , a Credentialed Congressional Correspondent in Washington D.C., writes for Hispanic Outlook Magazine, and is author of three books on immigration: November 2024: new release in paperback "The Law That Changed The Face of America: The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965" (Rowman & Littlefield); December 2024: A Primer: the 5 Basics Everyone Should Know About Immigration” and September 2008 "Immigration and the American Dream: Battling the Political Hype and Hysteria" (Rowman & Littlefield). She can be reached via porchowski@gmail.com.
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Too afraid to take the trash out.
It’s like they unlocked all the cages at the zoo.
The inconvenient truth that white liberals refuse to acknowledge or even discuss. The crime and murder rates in black communities is not only a criminal justice issue, but public health issue as well. There is indeed a crisis in the black community, resulting in an entire generation being lost.
Kudos to President Trump for trying to stop the death and destruction. Admittedly, those living in SB are CLUELESS about violent crime and the terror which those unfortunate enough to live in urban cities must suffer with on a daily basis.
https://giffords.org/lawcenter/report/gun-violence-in-black-communities/