WP: Dozens of Hydrants Not Working

Distrubing news from the Post about DC's fire hydrants.

When The Unthinkable Happens

An alley in Near Northeast (NOT where the rape occurred).

I'm talking, of course, about last week's rape of a 33 year old woman at knife point. It happened in an alley, in front of her 3 year old daughter (who was restrained by a second man), during daylight hours (5:45pm). It happened after they stopped at the Checker's on Maryland to get some dinner. It happen near 13th & G (Linden Court). So far there seems to have been very little in terms of news coverage (read the story or watch the video from NBC4). He's the original email sent out by MPD Cmdr. Groomes (1-D):
From: "Groomes, Diane (MPD)" diane.groomes@dc.gov
To: MPD-1D@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, April 5, 2007 10:25:10 AM
Subject: [MPD-1D] SEXUAL ASSAULT IN PSA 102/103 BORDER LAST NIGHT

AT APPROXIMATELY 2100 HOURS MPD RECEIVED A CALL FROM A FEMALE VICTIM REPORTING THAT SHE WAS INSIDE THE CHECKERS RESTAURANT WITH HER DAUGHTER WHEN SHE ENCOUNTERED TWO MEN IN THE LOBBY – SHE EXITED THE CHECKERS (14TH AND MD) AND WAS THEN FOLLOWED BY THE TWO MEN TO THE 1300 BLK OF G ST NE WHERE ONE SUSPECT – B/M, LATE 30S, 6’1” WITH BLK/GRY BEARD WITH HOODY SHIRT GRABBED HER INTO THE ALLEY AND SEXUALLY ASSAULTED HER ( THE SECOND ASSAILANT WAS DESCRIBED AS B/M IN HIS TWENTIES WITH BLK BASEBALL CAP AND BLK JACKET ON)

ANYONE WITH ANY INFORMATION – PLS CALL 727-9099

Ignore the 2100 hrs thing, it doesn't appear to be correct since police were on the scene way before that time.

Pretty disgusting and sad for all of us, particularly the woman and her daughter (who do live in the neighborhood). Crimes like this (occurring suring daylight hours, taking place in front of the woman's daughter) are particularly disturbing. They get under your skin in a way that a simple shooting really can't. Because they make you wonder how any human can be so depraved, and then they make you wonder what someone like that was even doing down the street from your home.

After worrying about these questions for a while, we have to think about how we can minimize these things in the future. Alleys aren't exactly unsafe, but often they are a little more secluded than the street and that sometimes means that a certain type of people feel more comfortable committing crimes back there. I consider the alley where I live now to generally be better than when I lived on I Street. While the one on I Street wasn't a haven for prostitutes, it suffered from constant illegal dumping and was otherwise generally deserted except for the teens who would gather there to smoke a little pot. It was also very poorly lit at night. Where I live now we have a big wide alley that is generally cleaner than many alleys in Trinidad (though we've had our own trash problems recently), we have some streetlights (though at least one always seems to be burned out), we hold alley clean-ups, and many of us are in the alley a lot just talking or checking on things. Recently a neighbor of mine was hit in the head by a 2x4 that a large group of kids (maybe 12 years old) threw at him seemingly for fun. Other people have been held up at gun point, we have had multiple stolen cars dumped here (I ran into a group of kids doing just that on Thursday night), and last summer I chased two kids down the alley who were attempting to steal my housemate's scooter. So, I guess we have problems here too.

My question is what can we (the District government, the residents, the ANCs, the MPD, the H Street business community) do to help combat this kind of crime? How can we make our selves (and vistors to our neighborhood) safer?