From the MPD-5 listerv-
To: MPD-5D@yahoogroups.com
From: diane.groomes@dc.gov
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:35:38 -0400
Subject: [MPD-5D] shooting 2000 blk of Maryland AVE NE
5d units are currently on the scene of the 2000 blk of Maryland Ave with an adult male shot multiple times..he has been taken to the hospital in critical condition… we have a lookout for a burgundy car fleeing the scene and ask that if anyone has information if they can call us at 1 888 919 CRIME if they have further information.
This is in the Carver-Langston area.
52 comments:
What's the problem around here? Are we in for a rough summer or what?
This seems incredible. Does anyone have any insight into what is going on?
I just heard last night that our local corner store was robbed(11th and C NE....there has not been an incident in years) and the same night someone getting off the bus at 14th and Tennessee was robbed.
seriously. this is crazy.
This will continue to go on until they fix the schools. How are you supposed to keep the streets clean if the schools are producing crack heads and deadbeat gangsters every year? It's a never ending battle. Get to the root of the problem and fix the schools.
I don't know why all of a sudden it seems like every night somebody is getting shot over there. It is probably drug/money related.
I don't buy that "its the economy" nonsense. That's a load of crap. These thugs never had jobs to begin with, they are still getting and will continue to get their gov't checks even if there's a depression.
No wonder DC is fighting so hard to keep the gun ban in place.
It's obviously working like a charm.
Now, now--we're all far safer knowing that only the criminals have guns. This really is crazy--and awful. Unfortunately, it could be a long summer.
I had walked my dogs there an hour before the shooting. It's funny, I usually feel safe when it is still daytime and there are lots of people around.
Apparently that is not the case.
Schools don't create thugs and gangbangers. Lack of a decent family upbringing does.
Stop pushing the problem onto the school system. The problem is these kids are brought up broken homes or homes that put no emphasis on education.
There are a great number of teachers in the DC school system that are living saints b/c they get paid peanuts and put up with kids who are taught AT HOME that getting an education or speaking intelligently is stupid.
This entrenched welfare state notion that DC should fix the problems that come from the home has got to stop. People have to start taking responsibility for their kids, their families, their houses and their communities. Stop blaming everyone else for your self-inflicted problems. And stop looking for a handout.
jj - why is it you think that there are so many messed up families in the District? Is it because these parents grew up receiving an excellent education? Schools are to blame for that also.
Are you telling us that there's nothing wrong with the schools in DC? Didn't the post print dozens of articles stating how bad the schools were, low scores etc. a while ago?
How can a child with loving and caring parents expect to make it in this world if the school he/she attends is one of the worst in the nation?
I want to second JJ - obviously the schools are bad in many cases, but the best teacher in the world isn't going to get through to a kid if when he/she goes home it's to an environment where the parent takes no interest in their education. I don't know about the rest of the readers here, but when I was a kid the only way my homework got done (and therefore reinforced what I sat through in class) was if one of my parents made me do it and quizzed me about my day. Most of these kids go home and then just hang out in the streets with their friends all night with little to no parental oversight.
I'm no fan of the DC public school system, but the primary source of blame for this crap lies squarely on the shoulders of the people who are supposed to be raising them. Unfortunately, a huge segment of DC's population has very poor values and passes that on to the children, and a school full of Mother Theresas is not going to overcome that in 99% of the cases.
um, how about parents AND the schools, plus years and years of that DC apathy that keeps electing people like Marion Barry because "He is good for us because he can related to us"
Of course all these recent murders are likely adults, so not much good school and parents is going to do now. The only hope left for these people is personal responsibility. Doesn't that make you feel good?
Getting the parents AND the schools cleaned up is as likely as Bush's approval rating hitting 90% by the end of the year.
It is much too late to fix the schools and try to clean this mess up. This has been ignored for far too long and the damage is already done. You see the results every day.
The only solution is to push these people out of the city. Raise taxes and rents so it is unaffordable to these bums. Meanwhile, you have all of these new developments coming into the area (H ST revitalization, Arbor Place, Fla ave farmer's market project, NOMA project etc) which will attract working professionals into the area. These people will actually pay taxes, take care of their properties, participate in their communities and actually care about their neighbors.
This has already been proven to work in mt. vernon sq/ chi town area, shaw and logan circle. Look at those areas 20 years ago and look at it now. New developments, higher taxes and rents will do wonders for Trinidad.
jj, arclight and anonymous all make excellent points. i have to lay the blame mostly on the parents as well though. how many times do you see pathetic family support structures while walking around dc, riding the bus, etc.? you look at some of these small children, you look at their parents and you just think to yourself "that kid is screwed." it's really sad.
however, some people (white and black) are just plain rotten from the start and there's nothing that can be done for them. you're always going to have that in a society. these individuals will do wrong no matter what given the means at their disposal, whether it's ripping off stockholders and creditors or robbing someone walking home from metro, or selling drugs. however, i believe there are many others who are not rotten to the core, but who become that way because they have little chance to be anything else. as kids, there is an opportunity to go in one direction or another. the ones taking the wrong path grow up thinking no one gives a damn about them, their parents suck, their school is dysfunctional and they become what the environment makes them. of course, despite these circumstances, there are extraordinary stories of inner city kids rising up against all odds, going to college and becoming a success. however, these kids, exceptional as they are, are the very rare exception and not all kids (white or black) could accomplish such goals given the odds stacked as they are.
why do i say all this? because i think there are opportunities for other people in the community to get involved and help reverse this trend. by no means do i suggest anyone is obligated to do this, nor do i suggest i am a champion of such activities. all i'm saying is i firmly believe it could make a huge difference if at least one in ten responsible adults with the background necessary to be a mentor tutored kids after school or volunteered to mentor at risk youth. this is not preaching. i'm not saying everyone should go out there and do this. no one is obligated to do any of this. and you're perfectly right not to get involved. why should you? these aren't your kids and they are clearly someone else's problem. in fact, if everyone did an effective job of providing proper guidance for their own children we wouldn't be in this mess. unfortunately, that is not the case. but just think if you, me and 10-20% of our neighbors did get involved? how incredible would that be? to show these kids that someone who may have little in common with them cares enough to get involved in their lives. many of us have done well in school, developed sound study habits and gone on to college. we understand that process. a vast majority of the families raising these kids do not. there is tremendous value in passing on those skills and that information to others.
i know i'm a hopeless idealist, but i just think ordinary people can make a huge difference. this is not a "call out" or a "call to action" or anything of the sort. again, i think people are perfectly right to not get involved. but just think how incredible it would be if more of us did get involved in bettering the lives of the least fortunate around us. i think the results would be amazing! you wouldn't see these results in a month or even a year, but over the course of time i think we would see a difference. i firmly believe we would see a decline in hs dropouts, teen pregnancies, crime, etc. i really do believe that. i hope more people every day start believing it too.
you people are crazy!
it's because of the alignment of the stars.
it'll get better when the third conjunction with taurus passes the second house.
Parents play a major role in the upbringing of their children. There are some groups of lower income households that don’t have the “thug” mentality. I am a native Washingtonian and product of the D.C. public school system. I was taught the importance of education and to strive for excellence. I was an honors student and graduated from college. Is this in fact as rare as it seems? I don't think D.C. makes a regular habit of following up on what becomes of its students. I’m not trying to brag, but if I was able to accomplish this, how many other people have done the same thing and are sitting back quietly observing this discussion? I like to think that there are many kids that can and do beat the odds everyday. It’s important to provide a loving and supportive environment for our children so that they can have a better chance of being successful in life.
How about the Landlords? Most of the Thugs live in the Neighborhood. They will either sell drug out of their homes or go do something in another neighborhood and that creates an environment that attracts riffraff’s. The 5th district police know all the drug run homes, and I don't think they do a great job informing the slumlords who rent their properties to these hoodlums
the answer is that we have too few churches in washington dc. if we just had a little more prayer, the good lord would certainly bless us all and clean this city up.
have a blessed day!
Castrate all DC men under the age of 60 who are currently receiving welfare checks.
Veterans are exempt of course.
That plan is fail proof
This discussion makes me think about this blog in general-- and who reads and comments on it. I doubt it's representative of the neighborhoods we live in- I'd love to hear from more non-white people who've lived in the 'hood for more than a few years. I admit I'm a total newbie, and sometimes feel a bit "lost" culturally around here. I didn't realize I had to travel in a loud pack of peers screaming as i walk down the street and throwing my litter everywhere just to fit in.
I wish that all these youngins wake up and realize that they are going to become someone's B..... in jail. They have no sense of care for people's lives. I just happen to be over there yesterday & just had turned the corner when the shots began. Stray bullets have no eyes. That idiot could have caused me not to go home to my 3 kids.
Tom, it doesn't take long to learn does it? A pint in your back pocket and pissing in an alley will improve your chances of fitting in as well.
Sheriff, I agree with you to an extent. My only question is what about all the social programs that have been in place for a number of years (Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Clubs, Tax-supported Community Recreation Centers). These things have been around for generations now and there's no proof that they are effective. How is this different from what you are advocating?
And speaking of the Community Recreation Centers, it seems to me that if you've been given something nice like this, people using them would take better care of them - but they don't. Another sign of tax payer money thrown down the drain on an ineffective social program (at least here in DC).
Sheriff (or others), I'm not trying to place judgement on the inner-city poor, I'm simply asking for help in understanding this problem better.
Tom, if my comment prompted your post, I’m not quite sure I’d call where I grew up "the hood" and interesting that you’d assume that. We were lower income, but lived in upper nw, just off Rock Creek Park...a rather nice part of town.
there are half a million people in DC. obviously the vast majority of children and adults are law abiding. if not, crime would be dramatically higher than it is. there's a hardcore group of folks, a criminal class if you will, who have kids themselves, who are perpetuating the vast majority of these acts...
the question is this, if this latest string of incidents is indeed a spike in activity: why now? what changed? on paper, our median income is rising. is there a return to the population of individuals who were formerly imprisoned during the bad old days of the late 80s/early 90s?
some of the crimes could possibly be racially motivated, maybe that could be attributed to some reaction to changing demographics, friction, a class-based form of xenophobia (aimed at yuppies not foreign nationals), etc.
Rachel, I could be wrong, but I read Tom's reference to the 'hood as just meaning this neighborhood, not the hood as in the ghetto.
Tom, this blog is absolutely not representative of the whole neighborhood. Many people don't have internet access, so you are getting a skewed sample on that point alone.
Soul Searcher, I think it's pretty safe to say that we appear to be experiencing a localized spike in homicides. Maybe it's the weather, or something else, or maybe it's random. To my knowledge none of the parties shot or stabbed around here in the past couple of weeks would qualify as yuppies. I'd venture a guess that the majority of the victims were not members of the middle class.
Yes I use 'hood for the neighborhood. I'd say "ghetto" if I wanted to be more rude about it. :-)
I wonder how many people in the H Street area don't have internet access at all. I hope the new library on H Street (someday!) will have lots of computers with internet access.
i agree with you, 2:40. most social programs in dc suck and others just don't plain work for a variety of reasons (lack of funding, lack of leadership, lack of competent staff, etc.). i don't have specific information on the programs you cite, but my sense is they do help somewhat even if they aren't totall affective. however, i still think there are groups (not dc agencies) engaged in this sort of thing (tutoring and mentorship) that lack effectiveness, not for want of vision and purpose, but for lack of skilled volunteers. groups like SOME (so others might eat), project northstar and others. i think if more people with real skills got involved in activities like that, it might make a difference in the long run. again, this is not a preachy call to action and i don't think this is THE answer. but i think the problems we discuss concerning crime and violence in our neighborhoods can be at least partially addressed through community action. after all, no matter how great mpd is and no matter how much we improve the infrastructure of our schools, dc is still going to suck big time because of the condition of the people living here. the community acting together just may be able to help address that, which i'm sure mpd would appreciate greatly.
I'm all for the castration idea--but let's not descriminate against all welfare recipients under 60... How about we just castrate the baby-daddys who have five or more children with four or more baby-mommas? Then, we'll tie the tubes of all baby-mommas who have five or more kids with four baby-daddies.
That's a start.
KIDDING, KIDDING.
On a much more serious note, I DO think that "over-reproduction" (for lack of a better term) could be considered part of the problem... people are getting pregnant and having babies and more babies without being ready financially or mentally.
Serious Question: Is there enough access to free birth control?
...of course, using birth control would be put in the category of "personal responsibility," and unfortunately I think it's too much to expect from some people.
(To clarify: "some people" refeers to anyone (regardless of income or race) who just accepts that unintended pregnancies are a way of life.)
I agree, free birth control, better parenting and better education system are all good answers, but only as preventative measures for the future. What are we going to do about all the "grown up" problems we're dealing with today? Drugs, violence, murders, burglary, vandalism, rap music, etc.
if several of the more negative posters here had been around in the early 1900's, they'd probably be eugenicists.
"these people"?
castration?
over-reproduction?
all this talk about castration and the wrong people reproducing is the exact sort of philosophy that was the foundation of a lot of nazi thought. bravo.
if anyone has any constructive ideas, feel free to share.
i certainly hope the eugenicist respondents are tutoring children or are otherwise active in creating a positive change in the neighborhood...or are you all just angrily typing?
to inked: i know nothing about the demographics of the victims, i usually make the bad assumption that robbers target people who appear affluent, but of course they're more likely to rob whoever appears to not be paying attention to their surroundings, regardless of income...
The only thing likely to change street crime in DC is surveillance. As the technology gets cheaper and better it's only a matter of time before it is widely implemented.
We've had forty years of every social program known to man, and our crime is still unacceptable.
We shouldn't discount the better-run of these programs, as they certainly do some real good on an individual level.
But if anyone thinks yet another round of taxpayer-supported midnight basketball is going to solve things they are sadly mistaken.
Contrary to popular opinion amongst many DC residents, it doesn't have to be this way. We have way more crime than cities like NYC and SF.
A lot of it is the culture. Simply put, crime is acceptable to far too many DC residents.
Of course, our focus here is on violent street crime. Equally acceptable to many is white collar crime. Enron, for example, ruined the lives of tens of thousands, and those that did the ruining apparently didn't seem to care.
On the DC street level, a lot of it is because we've warehoused the very poor non-working class in giant chunks of DC for generations now, and we've set up a ton of programs that reward them for remaining idle but punish them for trying to actually get jobs and get out of the public welfare destructive cycle. Idle hands really are the Devil's tool, it turns out.
You want to make an immediate difference in crime in DC? Make every single public housing resident submit to drug testing. All those testing positive get mandatory drug /alcohol treatment. Test them again. If they fail, they get another round of treatment. Test them again. If they fail, they get thrown out of public housing and off public welfare immediately. If they have kids, they lose parental custody immediately.
Take the hundreds of millions that we currently spend on housing the non-working, and use it instead to create real affordable housing for those willing to work. And only for those willing to work (obvious exceptions for the elderly, handicapped, etc.)
And they get an exception if they are really hot. Good looking people should just get free stuff no matter what they do or don't do.
Second, go ahead and get on board with electronic public surveillance.
Like it or not surveillance of many public spaces, including residential streets and alleys, is coming.
The only question is how we deal with it. Do we get on board early and demand accountability from our police department and others, or do we pretend it doesn't exist?
Anyone that thinks they are somehow 'private' right now is fooling themselves. It's just that now it's primarily the military that can literally count your nose hairs as you lay sleeping.
We've already lost our expectations of privacy. We might as well admit that and go ahead with implementing and sound and reasonably accountable electronic public surveillance program.
speaking of a pubic surveilance, it is good to see you my friend of hillman! longest time to see you.
no you are on blog, i'm asking, when can you open strip clubbing in your house?
it's make long time since you promise....
let us making pubic surveilance funding riser at your new club!
yes, hillman! you are the bestest of hoodie peoples in the house!
hoorah!
I agree with you Hillman cities like London, UK have surveillance camera in every corner and crime is very low down there. Recently Chief Lanier concurred crime went down 19% in all camera premises. American civil liberties union (do not get me wrong I’m fan of the ACLU, but not on this issue) should walk around neighborhood and see if public privacy matter
Soul Searcher:
I was kidding about the castration, as I noted.
By "over-population," I was reffering to people who either don't have access to free or affordable birth control--they have sex and a child is the result. If they do not have the means to raise this child on their own, they may go into "the system."
And the cycle repeats itself when, once again, that same individual doesn't have access to birth control or chooses not to use it and produces another child which he or she still can not support...
In short, I guess my unoffical definition for "over-reproduction" would be someone who has more children than they can support. For some people that is one child, for some people it's two, for some people it's five (depending on their means).
And just so I can feel better about myself... no, I am not just angrily typing away. :-) I educate women on their health for a living. It's an uphill battle every day--but a battle worth fighting.
you people disgust me. your lack of concern for the residents in this community is downright sickening. you obviously don't know the history of the district. this is not new york or philadelphia. dc has always had a huge enslaved population and after april 16 1862 (now celebrated as emancipation day), the black popuation soared. trinidad (and the surrounding neighborhoods) is a community where large numbers of enslaved and free blacks settled. they built this city and that shiny building on the hill can be linked to their labor.
i don't understand how all of you outsiders can make such harsh critiques of the school system and the black family structure without any relevant exposure to either of the institutions. but i guess that is what makes america great, huh? anyone can have an opinio or claim, no matter how biased and unsubstantiated it may be.
schools are definitely a problem, but the sole one. the family structure is a problem, but not the sole one. see what i'm getting at here? it is a combonation of two mixed with the lack of resources and access to employment and higher education. these shootings stem from a variety of sources and require more than one solution. its just not that simple people. even the "great" ms. rhee acknowledged that results of the school restructuring will not be seen for a number of years. a lot of residents in impoverised nieghborhoods throughout the city are not given the opportunity to interact with the broader world around them. its crazy, one can live in this city for 20 years and never make it down to the mall.
but these residents are not helpless victims. yes, they are the victims of oppression and inequality but they are not helpless. to suggest such would strip away their sense of agency, their ability to control their own lives. people must be more accountable for themselves and their communities.
Electronic surveillance (in London and elsewhere) actually does not reduce crime... It simply pushes it to areas (around the corner or down the block) to where the cameras aren't pointing. The solution is not more cameras.
More police presence will help. And just having people on the street, in their front yards and porches can go a long way as well. True, it didn't help Mr. Gaines, but at least there were witnesses.
I also have to question some of the ideas presented by previous posters... although I recognize that DC schools are crap and that many of the city's children are raising themselves, I think there are larger societal problems to blame. I'm not going to try to spell them out, but when someone loses all hope of betterment, almost anything becomes fair game.
Almost all the solutions proposed (and I can't tell whether many of them are serious or not) will only serve to shift the problem elsewhere, which - as a previous poster mentioned - has helped us to where we are today.
I'm done... now would some of you "anonymous" posters talking about criminal classes and castration go back to the 19th century where you belong? I hear there are job openings at Bedlam.
Anon. 10:38 began with, "you obviously don't know the history of the district....dc has always had a huge enslaved population and after april 16 1862 (now celebrated as emancipation day), the black popuation soared. trinidad (and the surrounding neighborhoods) is a community where large numbers of enslaved and free blacks settled. they built this city and that shiny building on the hill can be linked to their labor."
BLAMING unjust victimization on your problems today, what good does that do? Would reparations for slavery solve these problems?
One thing Anon. 10:38 did get right, though seems to contradict what he said earlier in his post, "but these residents are not helpless victims. yes, they are the victims of oppression and inequality but they are not helpless. people must be more accountable for themselves and their communities." Amen brotha' I couldn't have said that better myself.
"a lot of residents in impoverised nieghborhoods throughout the city are not given the opportunity to interact with the broader world around them. its crazy, one can live in this city for 20 years and never make it down to the mall."
Poor people can't walk or take a bus a couple miles to go to free museums? The relatively dense nature of this city makes it very easy for even the poorest neighborhoods to interact with the amnenities and jobs of downtown. Contrast that to even cities like San Francisco, where Bayview/Hunters Point was a LONG bus ride away from the downtown jobs until light rail opened last year.
someone on here needs to get their facts straight. all tard squad members, please read below:
Trinidad is a neighborhood located in Ward 5, in the northeast quadrant of Washington, D.C. and is a largely residential area.
The land once belonged to the family of a man who lived on the island of Trinidad and planned to relocate in the DC neighborhood (which was then considered a suburb of Bladensburg, MD), but died before coming to the states. It later belonged to a member of the Corcoran family, and he bequeathed it to George Washington University (then called Columbian College). The university sold it to one of the brickworks that once operated in the area (Washington Brick Machine Company). The brickworks intended to excavate clay from the land. Realizing that they did not need all of the land, the brickworks began selling off parcels, and, in the late 1800s/early 1900s, the first houses in Trinidad were built (in the western portion of the neighborhood). Many of the rowhouses are flat porch-fronted houses (similar to craftman style, except in a rowhouse) built in a style that gained popularity during the 1920s. The area is predominantly African American, and has a large deaf student population (from nearby Gallaudet University). Trinidad is historically working class, but in recent decades the neighborhood saw hard times and poverty levels were significant. Today the neighborhood is becoming more mixed in terms of income levels.
hillman,
empirical studies differ SHARPLY on the value of crime cameras.
see http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hors252.pdf
that link is to a meta-analysis of 22 studies on the effect of camera tech on crime prevention. 11 studies indicate a positive effect (crime reduction post-cameras), five studies
indicate a negative effect (MORE crime post-cameras), 5 studies
indicate a nuetral effect (clear evidence of no effect on crime rates, post camera) and 1
indicated unclear evidence of effect.
that, to put it plainly, means cameras are a 50/50 shot. their installation may reduce crime or crime may increase or crime rates may stay the same.
we, as a city, can't afford to spend money on things with mixed results on this level. i forwarded all this info to folks on the council when the crime cameras were being seriously considered as an anti-crime option a few years back.
side note: crime cameras do nothing to affect the white collar crime you mentioned. or on high level drug importation, which is how our streets get flooded with narcotics (high level transactions do not generally occur on city street corners). if you can't stop the major importation, you'll never stop it at the street level.
ps: all FIVE studies of north american usage of cameras indicated no
effect on the crime rate post-camera.
which means, cameras may work in the UK (for vehicle-related crime mainly), but NOT here, for anti- (violent/property) crime purposes, according to the social science.
as one could readily suppose when one sees the VAST numbers of armed robberies caught on camera...criminals in the U.S. don't care if cameras are present...
i don't know why you think i contradicted myself. i was just trying to clarify that residents in impoverished communities have some control over their lives. i believe they have the power to take control of their neighborhoods and change their situations. thats not a contradiction, my man, its a broad and expansive view of entrenched poverty.
its real unfortunate that u are unable to recognize the footprint slavery has left on our nation. i'm not mad at u tho, most americans (black and white) are unaware of the impact slavery has had on our society and culture. many of our contemporary problems, from the strartling high incarceration rates to the low educational attainment of black students, can be traced directly to slavery.
yes, i do believe reparations can can significantly alter the socio-economic status of african americans. but i'm not talking about just sending a check to every african american in the country. no, the reparations i'm referring to would be used to bring resources to the community like job training centers, free health clinics, adult education classes, and recreation centers where children can learn skill for the workforce and focus on their creativity energy. the money would be used collectively to fix aging schools in impoverished black communities and provide children with a high quality education--where the children are exposed to the latest technology and have access to the world around them. the money from reparations would not be used to be expensive cars or jewelry or anything else that is not aimed at uplifting the community. the residents of these impoverished communities would have complete control of their lives and they would be at the forefront of the movement.
think about, the money from reparations could reinvigorate impoverished communities without displacing the residents (i.e. gentrificaion) for the benefit a more affluent population.
"[scumbags] simply go where the cameras aren't pointing. The solution is not more cameras"
I think you may have inadvertently inserted the word "not" between "is" and "more cameras." Otherwise your argument becomes self-refutingly incoherent. Thanks!
"i do believe reparations can can significantly alter the socio-economic status of african americans..."
Well, since that clearly will not ever, ever happen, I think we can effectively ignore that hypothetical. Banging away on "reparations" is essentially a distraction, and a disservice to folks who already have enough stuff to overcome without being told that everything's going turn around, just as soon as Uncle Sam makes with the "fourty acres and a mule".
(Not saying *I* personally wouldn't support it; just pointing out the glaring political realities).
"no, the reparations i'm referring to would be used to bring resources to the community like job training centers, free health clinics, adult education classes, and recreation centers"
Um, wouldn't that be what rich and middle class people's taxes in DC have been doing for decades now?
Plus paying for fire and rescue, acres of free housing, road maintenance, and of course a stunningly bloated DC government, whose sole purpose seems to be to create jobs?
Whilst we are at it, would you care to pony up some reparations to the Indians that were in Anacostia before the rest of us ever showed up?
As for blaming current conditions in DC on slavery..... that's a bit of a stretch.
Yes, of course slavery had a massive impact on the formation of this country.
But at some point you've got to take responsibility for your own life. If you keep blaming slavery and doing nothing else, you will pass the problem on to yet another generation.
Is that really what your priority is?
As for kids (and residents of DC generally) not having opportunity, that's laughable at best. DC has a world class Metro, which will take you to a ton of libraries and other learning institutions. DC has a vibrant economy, even when the rest of the country is faltering. There are employers literally begging for all types of workers in DC, at all skill levels.
Even the very poorest in DC has more opportunity than probably 95% of the rest of the world's population.
For electronic surveillance to be effective city-wide they would need to be quite wide-spread. Otherwise, yes, it would tend to just push crime from one location to another.
As technology progresses it'll be easier and easier to implement city-wide security measures.
A bit troubling? Sure. But it's already happening. Every time you step on federal property you are under surveillance. Every major shopping center has you under surveillance. Etc, etc, etc.
Does it stop crime totally? No.
And I'm not saying it's a total or a quick fix. It would be one tool in an arsenal of tools. The longterm fix is to change the culture. And that requires admitting there is a cultural problem, which many aren't willing to do.
I'm just saying we've tried midnight basketball and every social program imaginable for 40 years, and we've gotten nowhere.
Hillman 10:23 said everything I wanted to say!
Hillman,
I agree with you with just about everything but this:
"Contrary to popular opinion amongst many DC residents, it doesn't have to be this way. We have way more crime than cities like NYC and SF."
I don't know if SF and NYC are good models to look at. SF has all but eliminated its blue collar class, making the town unlivable except for the moderately wealthy. That sucks.
New York's solution was to rid lucrative areas of development of crime by placing ten cops per block in those areas. While I would love ten cops standing at the ready on 8th and L, or even 8th and H, it will never happen for any residential area in the city. It's just not cost effective. We can't even afford to put enough cops to look over Chinatown on the weekends (Talking out my butt on that one, but always seems like there is an incident on 7th and H when I go late at night).
8th and el:
You raise some valid points. Of course each city has unique circumstances.
I'm just saying that urban crime doesn't have to be at nearly the levels it's been at in DC. For decades we've been told that urban area high crime is just a fact of life that we must accept. I find that premise flawed.
I don't have stats handy, but I've always been told that DC has considerably more cops per capita than just about any other city. True, NYC is a more dense city, but still you have to police up rather than out in NY, which presents it's own difficulties in policing.
Did you read the study to which I linked?
All five north american studies of camera usage referenced at the link above have indicated that crime actually INCREASED where cameras were present, i.e. crime increased even though cameras were present.
You are promoting an option that has essentially been proven completely ineffective in the North American context.
You already know if you have spent one hour watching American television that bank robberies, liquor store holdups, etc continue to happen and even escalate during certain periods DESPITE the presence of cameras in these locations...
You're essentially advocating throwing tax money into a furnace...
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