In D.C.’s Ward 7, which has one of the highest crime rates in the city, the East Washington Heights Baptist Church has occasionally shown up in the robbery statistics. There was an incident in March this year, when thieves took laptops. A few years earlier, someone broke in and stole communion wafers and vandalized the church building.
“For us, it’s really a matter of how you react to crime,” says Rev. Kip Banks, the church’s pastor for more than two decades.
Since President Trump declared a “crime emergency” in the District of Columbia on Aug. 11, National Guard troops have patrolled the city’s streets, and other federal law enforcement agencies have helped local police make hundreds of arrests…