Should D.C. Have a District Attorney?

Should cases against those accused of breaking the law in D.C. be prosecuted by a local elected official or federal authorities?

On Tuesday D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced a bill in Congress to allow D.C. residents to elect a District Attorney. She said,

There is no law enforcement issue of greater importance to D.C. residents, or on which they have less say, than the prosecution of local crimes. A U.S. attorney has no business prosecuting the local criminal laws of a jurisdiction, an anomaly from the past that is out of place in 21st century home-rule D.C. The goal of the legislation is to put the District of Columbia on par with every other local jurisdiction in attention to its local criminal laws.

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