During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) questioned several witnesses, including the grandmother of a victim of violent crime, a local law enforcement officer, federal officers and a state senator — blew the roof off with the truth about crime happening in Democrat-led cities. The insights these witnesses provided show how police in these cities are being forced to reduce felony charges and release criminals immediately after their arrest.
The testimony also uncovered there are judges who are handing out light sentences for heinous crimes like murder, while law-abiding gun owners are coming under heavy scrutiny. The questioning period opened with Grassley speaking with Gregg Pemberton, who currently serves as the Chairman of the D.C. Police Union, asking him questions related to the deployment of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital by President Donald Trump.
“Critics claim the Trump Administration didn’t need to mobilize the National Guard in D.C. because D.C. crime decreased by 35 percent in 2024. You’ve suggested that statistic was falsely inflated. In a House Oversight Committee hearing, D.C. Chairman Mendelson said you were lying. Is the 35 percent statistic inflated? … Do you think this is a common problem with crime statistics?” Grassley asked Pemberton.
“The Internal Affairs Division at the Metropolitan Police Department had publicly announced they were investigating command staff officials for manipulating crime data. The accusation was that they were going into police databases and changing felonies to misdemeanors to keep crime numbers down,” Pemberton replied, adding that he also believes crime data was inflated.
“Do I believe that crime data was inflated? Yes… Our members report to [the D.C. Police Union] quite often… that when officers respond to the scene of a crime, and they’re investigating what they believe is a felony, inevitably some management official will contact them, either by arriving on the scene or by phone, and direct them or sometimes even order them to take a report for lesser offenses – typically misdemeanors – to keep those crime stats down,” he continued.
Pemberton then said that crime went down by 35% in 2024 and dropped another 25% during the first six months of 2025, before stating he didn’t believe the numbers were accurate. Grassley then turned to Christopher Goumenis, the Special Agent in Charge, Washington Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“Mr. Goumenis, you’ve been in law enforcement for 30 years working in areas with progressive prosecutors and soft-on-crime policies. You even served in the local police department in Norfolk, Virginia, which now has a Soros-funded prosecutor. How have soft-on-crime policies and progressive prosecutors impacted investigations you’ve worked on?” the senator asked.
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“Since approximately 2020, law enforcement has begun to move away from proactive policing… to more of a reactive way of policing…. Lawmakers, prosecutors and even police officials passed policies and procedures limiting patrol officers’ ability to engage in proactive policing,” Goumenis replied, adding, “here became a practice of releasing criminals immediately after an arrest rather than keeping them incarcerated. Legislators followed suit by passing cashless bail or pushing for people to be released on personal recognizance bonds regardless of the crime committed.”
This practice has allowed for a revolving door of criminals in and out of the justice system in prisons. Incarcerations have been shortened. Sentences have been reduced. Criminals have become emboldened. Criminals no longer fear arrest, convictions [or] incarcerations,” he added. Goumenis also said that the D.C. Superior Court has been routinely releasing offenders on personal recognizance bonds not long after their initial arrest. He also stated these criminals are let go before agents have had the opportunity to finish processing evidence.
Grassley then interviewed Forlesia Cook, a native of D.C. and grandmother of Maty William McMilian Jr., a victim of violent crime. “Ms. Cook, in your opening statement, you testified about the murder of your grandson, Marty. Marty’s murderer was eventually caught and sentenced. You read an impact statement at his sentencing. Please explain what the judge said after you read your statement. Do you feel justice was served?” Grassley asked the grandmother.
“We read our impact statements, and let me tell you, Marty was so loved in my family, we had at least 30 impact statements. After we read them, [the judge] said to us, ‘Thank you for your impact statements.’ She looks over at the killer, she looks over at him and she says… ‘Is there anything [you’d] like to say? I know you had a stressful day, after listening to all of that,'” she responded.
She then told Grassley that she didn’t feel the family received justice for what happened to her grandson. “No, we did not receive justice. He was given, concurrently, with the time that he was charged with guns and drugs, 10 years concurrently. So, he had already done four, now how many years does that mean? He’ll get five years of probation or on parole? So how many years does he actually do in jail? This is a heinous murder that he committed.”
Later in the hearing, Grassley questioned the Honorable Brent Taylor, who currently serves as a state Senator for District 31 in Tennessee. “Many on the left have pushed for further gun regulations to combat the violent crime we are seeing in these soft-on-crime cities. What are your thoughts on gun ownership? In your opinion, are more regulations needed to keep our communities safe?” He asked the state senator.
“What citizens in Memphis are fearful of are the guns that are on the streets [with] people that shouldn’t have them… this picture here, this is a group of young men in a convenience store posing with long guns and handguns, so that they can have a picture for social media. It’s these types of pictures that I want to try to stress, because they don’t have these guns because we don’t have enough regulations. They have these guns because they don’t follow the law,” Taylor replied.
Taylor then stated that legislators could pass all the gun laws they wanted, but criminals are criminal by nature, implying they won’t abide by those laws and still get their hands on weapons and use them for violent purposes. “We’ve had that problem since Cain slew Abel with a rock. We don’t need to continue to put restrictions on law-abiding citizens who just simply want to protect themselves in their homes.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video