During his announcement last week, President Donald Trump said violent crime in D.C., especially those crimes committed by young people, are among the reasons for placing the police department under federal control.
Curtis Mozie, a filmmaker who has dedicated his life to documenting and combating gang and gun violence in D.C., joined WTOP’s Mike Murillo on Sunday to talk about youth crime.
The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Murillo: City leaders and police say violent crime is down, but the president is arguing otherwise, claiming federal control will eventually make the city essentially crime free, in his words.
How would you describe the current crime situation? How would you compare the current situation what we’re seeing now to years past?
Mozie: My perspective of it is that crime is still happening. You know, I see it anytime one person’s life is lost and murdered. I feel as though that crime is not good — it’s dangerous out there.
And, anytime you have the idea of these young guys or young people, anybody with a weapon can go into a community and bring terror upon innocent people, or somebody who’s just getting robbed walking home and get jumped and robbed and get stumped in the head. That is sickening. So I think that crime, it is out of control.
Murillo: Talk a bit about the response you’ve seen. I’m sure you’ve heard you — you operate a safe house, and feel free to talk about that.
But you run a safe house, you hear from people, you know, what are you hearing when it comes to what we’re seeing from the federal government here, the National Guard members, is it making a difference?
Mozie: Well, for the people I’ve spoken with, you’d be surprised, they love it. They love it. They love it. Because, you know, it’s hard to complain when previous days, you know, you can’t even go to the grocery store.
People were telling me that you can’t go outside to go to the store and get something to eat, because y’all worry about being shot in a drive-by, or getting knocked in the head. But now people are saying that they appreciate it.
You know, that law enforcement are out there. They can go, they can walk down the street now, they take their child to school without worrying about somebody in a car coming by, shooting up a neighborhood. And that, to me, you know, it’s a good thing. That’s what I’m being told.
Murillo: We talk about that holistic approach to handling this sort of thing. What in your words and what you’ve seen, what do you think is the full picture here on how you approach this sort of thing? And, finally, get to a point where we have a lot less crime in D.C.?
Mozie: For my many years of being out there on the streets, you know, talking to the youth and filming it, you know, documenting. I got 40 years of history of life and death on the streets of Washington. My approach is you got to go to the young women and men and let them know that you have love for them.
Let them know that there’s no politics involved, and you’re not trying to get any vote in office, or not running for no council seat or mayor, but straight out of love. The main thing you got to tell them that is we got to pursue peace. So we got to find peace. Peace isn’t going to come to us. We got to pursue it, and then make it happen. So, and that’s why I have my safe house.
You know, people have problems. They come through here. I have, had people shot coming into my door for help. People have been stabbed, jumped. You know, can’t go out their neighborhood, can’t go home because they made the wrong turn and went into this neighborhood. So, you know, I mean, its — so much things that’s been happening there. It’s time for change.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
© 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
