‘F you’: Departing DC police chief invokes Bible in performative, preacher-like rebuke to critics amid crime stat scandal



Departing Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith had a final message for her critics amid an ongoing investigation into allegations that the department manipulated its data to make crime appear lower in Washington, D.C.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released an interim report earlier this week on its investigation into the MPD. The report claimed that department leadership pressured and instructed commanders to downgrade crime classifications to lesser offenses, including those not included in the daily crime report available to the public. Smith was accused of propagating a "culture of fear, intimidation, threats, and retaliation."

'This person should’ve NEVER been in ANY position of power.'

The MPD hosted a Friday walkout ceremony for Smith after her resignation announcement last week. Her resignation is effective December 31.

During the ceremony, Smith denied the allegations against her, insisting that she "never will and never would have encouraged, intimidated, retaliated, or told anyone to change their numbers."

"I hope you can understand this from a spiritual context because the theme of what has resonated in this place is one thing, and that's God," Smith said.

She claimed that "some folks" mistook her "passion for being the angry black woman."

RELATED: DC police chief manipulated crime stats to make city look better, report claims

Pamela Smith. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

"My passion is because I love this work. I love God's people, but I dare not leave without saying something to my haters," she continued.

Smith was taking on a preacher-like persona by this point, and she raised her gravelly toned voice and offered dramatic pauses as she listed to the crowd all the church-related activities she took part in over the years before declaring "there's enough Jesus in me that's gonna get me to heaven if I die tomorrow!"

Then she dropped an F bomb — kinda.

"I'm going to the Bible when I say this to my haters: F you," Smith declared before issuing another dramatic pause to the crowd, which seemed a bit taken aback.

"I forgive you," she said soon after. "I forgive you because the Bible makes it very clear. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, when he said to us, 'Father' — even in the pit of agony and defeat, he said, 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.' God bless you, and God keep you."

RELATED: Whistleblower alleges widespread manipulation of DC crime stats, fueling Oversight Committee probe

Smith also called for an investigation into those who accused her of directing police staff to manipulate crime statistics.

Her departing speech was likened to a screaming meltdown.

“WTF?! DC’s DEI police chief Pamela Smith just had a SCREAMING MELTDOWN while giving her resignation speech, after she was caught fudging crime stats,” independent journalist Nick Sortor wrote in a post on social media. “This person should’ve NEVER been in ANY position of power. Especially in the nation’s capital.”

President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized D.C.'s Democratic leadership for the district's crime wave. He previously threatened a potential federal takeover if leadership failed to address the crisis successfully — and Trump did just that when he federalized D.C. police in August.

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President Donald Trump. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Former Police Commander Michael Pulliam was suspended in July after he was accused of participating in the alleged data manipulation.

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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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RealPage, accused of rental price fixing, settles suit with feds



A real estate website once accused of facilitating a "housing cartel" has reached a settlement with the Department of Justice.

After a more than year-and-a-half battle, RealPage and the DOJ have come to an agreement that will limit certain features on the app that renters claimed were unfair.

'Replacing competition with coordination ... renters paid the price.'

In 2024, tenants from a popular building in Jersey City, New Jersey, took RealPage to court over allegations of landlords sharing nonpublic information on the website, including vacancy data.

The tenants said the information inflated rental prices, effectively resulting in price-fixing rent across cities due to landlords using the same algorithm to dictate their prices.

In November 2023, the attorney general of Washington, D.C., submitted a different complaint against 14 other landlords operating more than 50,000 rental units in territory.

"Effectively, RealPage is facilitating a housing cartel," said D.C.'s AG Brian Schwalb.

A DOJ suit in August 2024 seemingly tipped the scales, and now RealPage has agreed to settle on terms.

RELATED: 'Housing cartel' landlords accused of price-fixing rent rates using automated software to maximize rental profits

— (@)

According to the DOJ's Antitrust Division Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater, RealPage was "replacing competition with coordination, and renters paid the price."

The settlement stops RealPage from coordinating pricing, Slater said in a video posted to X, and forces the app to cease using competitor data to set rents in real time. As well, RealPage can no longer generate "hyper-localized pricing that pushes rent up" and must eliminate features that discourage landlords from lowering prices.

"It means rents set by the market, not a secret algorithm," Slater remarked.

In a press release, RealPage boasted that the settlement led to no findings or admissions of liability, including no financial penalties or damages being awarded.

However, the company did reveal that it agreed to be independently monitored to confirm ongoing compliance with the new terms. Reuters reported that the monitorship will last three years and limit how RealPage collects and uses nonpublic data.

RELATED: Did rent go up? Blame AI price-fixing

— (@)

Stephen Weissman, Gibson Dunn partner and former deputy director for the Federal Trade Commission, reiterated the company's denial of any wrongdoing and blamed the spread of misinformation for alleged misconceptions on how the app operates.

"There has been a great deal of misinformation about how RealPage's software works and the value it provides for both housing providers and renters."

Weissman claimed that the company's use of "aggregated and anonymized nonpublic data" has led to lower rents and more "pro-competitive" effects.

Aiden Buzzetti, president of the Bull Moose Project, told Return that he feels the settlement ensures that "Americans who rent are not subject to illegal price-fixing practices."

Buzzetti added, “We support the Trump administration's transformative direction to hold corporations like RealPage accountable when they violate the law."

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Bill Maher urges left to stop comparing Trump to Hitler



Bill Maher urged the left to stop equating President Donald Trump with Adolf Hitler, arguing that "makes it a lot easier to justify things like assassination."

'I'm no fan of this guy but he is right, and people on the Left like him need to call for this as well.'

Maher made the comments on a Friday episode of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher." His remarks followed the tragic assassination earlier this week of Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk.

Maher mentioned Trump's recent dinner at Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab in Washington, D.C., where left-wing protesters confronted him.

"Trump is the Hitler of our time! Free D.C., free Palestine!" the protesters chanted.

As they were escorted out of the building, they told diners, "You should all be ashamed that [Trump] was welcomed here. He's terrorizing communities in D.C. He's terrorizing communities all over the world, from Puerto Rico to the Philippines, to Palestine, to Venezuela."

RELATED: Filmmaker David Mamet tells Bill Maher that Democrats have destroyed the family — and he agrees

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Maher told his audience, "This s*** has to stop, too. [Trump] went out to dinner — I wouldn't have done that — in Washington, D.C., okay. And people started to gather around him, and they were chanting, 'You're the Hitler of our time.'"

"First of all, assholes, he's not Hitler. An insult to everybody in the Holocaust, to begin with," Maher continued. "Second of all, calling somebody Hitler makes it a lot easier to justify things like assassination. Let's put a s***load of that away, shall we?"

RELATED: Bill Maher shocks with humble admission about Trump: 'I gotta own it'

Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images

X users reacted to Maher's comments.

"Gotta give credit to Bill Maher for being basically the only person in his party to acknowledge the damage Democrats have done by calling everyone they don't like Hitler," Outkick writer Ian Miller stated.

Shawn Farash wrote, "Bill Maher believes people should STOP calling Trump 'Hitler' because it leads to the justification for assassination. I'm no fan of this guy but he is right, and people on the Left like him need to call for this as well."

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Teen thugs allegedly gunned down GOP intern in DC — Pirro announces charges



Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, announced charges against two teenagers accused of fatally shooting a congressional intern.

'This killing underscores why we need the authority to prosecute these younger kids, because they’re not kids; they’re criminals.'

Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, a 21-year-old University of Massachusetts student and intern for the office of Republican Rep. Ron Estes of Kansas, was killed near D.C.’s Mount Vernon Square in June when a group of people exited a car and opened fire. Two others were injured in the attack, including a 16-year-old.

“The scene involved two rifles, one 9 millimeter, and 79 rounds on the ground,” Pirro said on Friday.

Pirro announced that two 17-year-olds had been arrested and charged with first-degree murder for the shooting. She noted that authorities are also pursuing a third suspect. The teens will be tried as adults.

“[Tarpinian-Jachym] was an innocent bystander who was caught in a violent act that was not meant for him,” Pirro stated. “His death is a stark reminder of how fragile life is and how violence too often visits us in the nation’s capital.”

RELATED: 21-year-old congressional intern killed in triple shooting in Washington, DC

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Pirro stated that Tarpinian-Jachym was shot four times.

“The D.C. Council thinks that these kids need to be protected. They don’t need to be protected. They need to be made accountable,” Pirro said. “This killing underscores why we need the authority to prosecute these younger kids, because they’re not kids; they’re criminals.”

Blaze News reached out to the D.C. Council for comment.

Pirro mentioned that violent acts like this are the reason President Donald Trump has launched a law enforcement initiative in D.C. to restore order.

RELATED: DC mayor and AG at odds as lawsuit challenges Trump’s anti-crime operation

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

“Eric, you didn’t die in vain,” Tamara Tarpinian-Jachym, the victim’s mother, told the Washington Post. “If we would’ve known the city was so dangerous, we wouldn’t have let him go.”

She told the news outlet that listening to President Donald Trump gave her hope.

“Hope that my son won’t just be a statistic. And hope that these changes will mean no other innocent people will get shot,” she added.

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