After a recent spate of killings around town (despite what you might believe from the name Gallaudet Street, the last killing occurred not in Trinidad, but rather north & west of it) Chief Ramsey has declared a DC Crime Emergency (giving him greater flexibility to change officers' schedules on short notice & to move them around the city to better focus on problem areas). Will we see more officers here? Will it help?
In somewhat related notes:
-Courtland Milloy has a piece on the topic of juvenile crime in DC;
-The NY Times has an article on the National Asset Database that Homeland Security uses to decide what areas get more or less money to prevent terror threats;
-NY Times on DC's crime emergency;
5 comments:
When citizens are denied the human right of self defense, is anyone really all that surprised that criminals are emboldened?
I know the murders are getting all the news attention, but the jump in armed robberies is astonishing, and the brazenness for how and where these attacks are taking place is the real problem. Getting mugged on a sleepy side street late at night is unfortunately going to happen from time to time in a big city. But how confident do these lowlifes have to be to commit armed robbery on the National Mall? (wearing ski masks in 90 degree weather no less) With all the various law enforcement patrolling those areas, I think it says a lot about what these delinquents think of our police department and justice system and may explain why the rate of attacks is climbing throughout the city.
I'm not sure shifting police schedules and such is going to have that much of an impact. The problem is rooted much deeper in the image of our police dept. by the criminals -- these people clearly see little likelihood that they'll be caught. There have been a lot of police checkpoints and a lot more cruiser patrols in the neighborhoods south of H St./Maryland Ave. strip in the past few months, which I certainly welcome. However, while it does quiet things down for a while, a couple of days later the hoodlums are back out on the corners. Case in point: MPD had checkpoints along 16th on Friday and Saturday. When I drove by on Tuesday night around 8 p.m. the normal hotspots were hopping.
Also I was surprised to hear Chief Ramsey's comments on Fox5 this morning (as well as Courtland Milloy's Post column) that seemed to place a lot of blame on DC's inability to keep juvenile offenders locked up for extended periods or even ensuring that MPD is informed when these teenage criminals are let back out on the street. If this is true, then that might be one place to start focusing on.
--shelley
Too bad the crime emergency can't change the drain on MPD resources resulting from the Administration's war on terror.
The upside is that nobody in my neighborhood has been mugged by Al-Queda.
Jason, way to work in an unfounded dig on the Prez. The Administration is to blame for crime in N.E! thanks for the laugh.
At least Jason had the sack to put his name up with his comment.
Oh wait... Nevermind.
Regards,
Anon Coward
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