Lawmakers in Washington, D.C. passed a sweeping anti-crime bill Tuesday just days after business leaders in the nation’s capital wrote a letter to Mayor Muriel Bowser and legislators warning about an "alarming increase in violent crime across our city." 

The Secure D.C. Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024 — which includes more than 100 proposals to fight crime, including ramping up gun violence penalties and adding punishments for organized retail theft, according to FOX 5 DC — was passed by the D.C. Council in a 12-1 vote late Tuesday.  

"The council passage of my Secure DC legislation sends the clear message that DC is united in its efforts to make meaningful and sustainable improvements to public safety by preventing crime, ensuring accountability, and improving government coordination and response," Councilmember Brooke Pinto wrote on X, formerly Twitter, following the ruling.

It comes after Washington, D.C. saw the most homicides in 25 years last year with 274 overall deaths and a 39% increase in violent crime, although Bowser said both those figures are down so far in 2024, Fox5DC reports. She is expected to sign the bill into law. 

"We should not let criminals take over our neighborhoods," the Democrat mayor reportedly said Saturday. "We do need to see significantly more decreases in crime and that’s what our message is." 

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Last week, more than 70 business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Retail Federation penned a letter to Bowser and lawmakers urging them to take action on the "pressing issue" of crime that "threatens the safety and prosperity of not only our community but also our employees and their families." 

"Washington, D.C., is quickly becoming a national outlier in rising crime, and the trends are alarming. The national homicide rate decreased by 15% from 2022 to 2023, and the homicide rate in major cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Phoenix all declined more than 10%. In Washington, D.C., homicides rose by 35%," reads a portion of the letter, which was obtained by Axios. 

"Our organizations are primarily based in the downtown business district, where there have been horrifying acts of violence over the past several months," the letter adds, noting that the Council should "take immediate action to target the small group of organized and repeat criminals responsible for most of these violent offenses." 

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On the D.C. Council’s website, it says the Secure D.C. Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024 would "eliminate or extend the length of statutes of limitations for certain serious crimes" and that "it would make misdemeanor arrest warrants extraditable and also clarify that GPS records in the possession of the Pretrial Services Agency can be admissible to prove a defendant’s guilt in a criminal case or other judicial proceeding." 

"It would enhance protections for seniors and children and also increase protections for victims of sexual and domestic violence," it also says. 

In February, Bowser said "We know that driving down crime requires us to send a clear message that if you make our city less safe, if you bring violence to our community, you will be held accountable," according to FOX 5. 

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Chinese and Philippine coast guard vessels collided in the disputed South China Sea and four Filipino crew members were injured in high-seas confrontations Tuesday as Southeast Asian leaders gathered for a summit that was expected to touch on Beijing’s aggression at sea.

The Chinese coast guard ships and accompanying vessels blocked the Philippine coast guard and supply vessels off the disputed Second Thomas Shoal and executed dangerous maneuvers that caused two minor collisions between the Chinese ships and two of the Philippine vessels, Philippine officials said.

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Officials in China gave fewer details but the country's coast guard said that the Philippine ships were illegally intruding in the area's waters and accused one of them of ramming a Chinese vessel.

Philippine officials said that the BRP Sindangan of the Philippine coast guard had minor structural damage from a collision that happened shortly after dawn. Over an hour later, another Chinese coast guard ship first blocked then collided with a supply boat the Philippine coast guard was escorting, the officials said.

The supply boat, manned by Filipino navy personnel, was later hit by water cannon blasts from two Chinese coast guard ships. Its windshield shattered, injuring at least four Filipino crew members, according to a statement from the Philippine government task force dealing with territorial disputes.

The task force said the actions by the Chinese was "another attempt to illegally impede or obstruct a routine resupply and rotation mission."

"China's latest unprovoked acts of coercion and dangerous maneuvers" against Philippine ships en route to deliver supplies and fresh troops to the Philippine-occupied shoal "put the lives of our people at risk and caused actual injury to Filipinos," it said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila summoned China's deputy ambassador to convey a protest against the Chinese coast guard's actions, which it said were unacceptable.

"The Philippines demands that Chinese vessels leave the vicinity of Ayungin shoal immediately," the department said in a statement, using the Philippine name for the contested shoal.

A small Philippine marine and navy contingent has kept watch onboard a rusting warship, the BRP Sierra Madre, which has been marooned since the late 1990s in the shallows of the Second Thomas Shoal.

China also claims the shoal lying off the western Philippines and has surrounded the atoll with coast guard, navy and other ships to press its claims and prevent Filipino forces from delivering construction materials to fortify the Sierra Madre in a decades-long standoff.

The shoal has been the site of several tense skirmishes between Chinese and Philippine coast guard ships last year.

The Chinese coast guard said in a statement that "it took control measures in accordance with the law against Philippine ships that illegally intruded into the waters adjacent to Ren'ai Reef," the name Beijing uses for Second Thomas Shoal.

The Chinese coast guard said a Philippine ship deliberately rammed a Chinese coast guard vessel, causing a minor scratch.

Washington strongly condemned the Chinese coast guard's actions and its ambassador in Manila, MaryKay Carlson, said the U.S. stands with the Philippines and proponents of international law. Australia and Japan separately expressed their concern over China's actions.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the latest incidents demonstrated China's "reckless disregard for the safety of Filipinos and also for international law," and that China was interfering with "lawful Philippine maritime operations."

The long-simmering territorial disputes in the South China Sea are expected to be discussed at a summit of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their Australian counterpart on Wednesday in Melbourne.

On Monday, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in the Australian city that his administration "will do whatever it takes" to manage any threat to his country’s territory but stressed that Manila would continue "to tread the path of dialogue and diplomacy" in resolving disputes with China.

The Philippines and Vietnam plan to raise their alarm over China's increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed waters during the summit, a senior Southeast Asian diplomat told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to discuss the issue publicly.

Philippine security officials have accused the Chinese coast guard and suspected militia ships of blocking Philippine vessels and using water cannons and a military-grade laser that temporarily blinded some Filipino crew members in a series of high-seas confrontations last year.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila accused the Philippines of frequent provocative moves in the South China Sea and said China acted "in accordance with law to defend its own sovereignty, rights and interests."

The confrontations have sparked fears of a larger conflict that could involve the United States.

Chinese and Philippine officials met in Shanghai in January and agreed to take steps to lower tensions but their latest confrontation at sea underscores the difficulty of doing so.

The U.S. has warned it is obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea. China has warned the U.S. to stop meddling in what it calls a purely Asian dispute.

Brunei, Malaysia Vietnam and Taiwan also have overlapping claims to the strategic waterway, a major global trade route which is also believed to be sitting atop rich undersea deposits of oil and gas.