Violent crime is an issue pretty much everywhere. Everyone wants to see something done. The problem is, some decide that a peace walk is a way to accomplish that.

Yes, you read that right. A “peace walk” in a supposed effort to combat violent crime.

This is a real thing in our nation’s capital.

More than 100 people marched together for change after a 6-year-old girl was killed last week in Southeast D.C.

A peace walk was held in honor of children who have fallen victim to gun violence, including Nyiah Courtney who was shot to death shortly after riding her scooter last Friday.

The walk was organized by a group called We are Mothers. It began at 7:30 p.m. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave. where Courtney was killed. The community marched for peace and change.

During the peace walk, mothers shared similar stories of a child lost to gun violence in the city. The mothers at the event advocated for city leaders to do more to help end the killings.

Yes, because city officials love seeing violent crime spike. I mean, that never hurts reelection chances, now does it?

I’m not going to lie. I get so annoyed at this kind of crap.

The reason it bothers me is that it’s a waste of time. These people marched not really for the victims of violence or to end violence. They marched because it made them feel better.

They do this so they don’t have to roll up their sleeves and do the real hard work to reduce violent crime, but still pretend they’re working towards a solution.

When people talk about “virtue signaling,” they mean something that tells the world they have the right opinions, usually without having to actually do anything more than signal. Well, this is virtue signaling.

Congratulations. You oppose violent crime. Now you’re just like everyone else. Good for you.

And do criminals watch these marches and change their ways? Has a bad guy ever watched one of these in person or on the news and said, “Oh, man. I didn’t realize all these people were against me shooting the neighborhood up. I guess I’d better change my ways,” then started walking the straight and narrow?

That’s a serious question, too. I really want to know if anyone has ever seen this.

I sure as hell haven’t.

What I do see are a bunch of people who are deluding themselves into thinking they’re accomplishing something, rather than rolling up their sleeves and getting to work actually accomplishing something.

Violent crime doesn’t burst onto the scene fully formed. People become violent. Interrupt the process along the way and you prevent an untold number of violent crimes. It doesn’t take a city to do some of that, either. It just takes work, a lot more work than organizing a peace march ever would.

Look, I have no issue with people doing stuff to make them feel better. However, the problem is that most of these peace marchers are going to go back to their lives and do almost nothing else.

They could be rallying support for new initiatives. They could be fundraising for new programs that may keep people from becoming violent. In fact, they could even be working toward creating programs to help people get out of gangs, which accounts for most of the violent crime, and do it all while using the march as a springboard.

But they’re not.