It’s an open secret that the Attorney General lives in Great Falls, VA and not in the downtown apartment that he rents to maintain his residency in DC that is required by the DC Code, and this isn’t the first time it’s been talked about in this fashion. However, a new video on YouTube (shown above) takes the stalking of Peter Nickles to a whole new level, as the maker of the video tracked Nickles’ evening movements with a video camera to his home in Great Falls on a number of summer nights.
Would it be nice if Nickles had the desire to live in the District? Yes, definitely. But stalking him seems like a creepy way to accomplish what we’re looking at, here.
I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.
What makes it really creepy is… you’re there, why not just go knock on the door? If you really feel that strongly about it, add that to the documentation.
For that matter, why not just go knock/buzz at the Landsburg building every night for, say, a week? Or FOIA the Mayor’s office for the annual audit (and the methods used for that audit) that they are required by law to perform?
If you think it’s creepy, why are you feeding the troll by posting his video?
I strongly disagree with giving this video any media coverage whatsoever. There are a lot of arguments to be made against Peter Nickles, and perhaps residency is one of them. However, this video proves nothing. Not only is the video not even timestamped, there’s no indication at all of when it was shot. We’re supposed to believe a list of dates shown on a screen, whenever whoever made it doesn’t even have the balls to take responsibility for it? This is just amateur and doesn’t have one bit of credibility. Like Don says, this is a cowardly way to attack someone when more effective means are available. Even just showing a damned copy of the day’s USA TODAY before going on a stalking expedition.
@Dave Stroup,
Execution was poor, but do you really feel “perhaps residency” is an “argument to be made against Peter Nickles.”
If you’re like me, what gives me that creepy feeling is when high government officials lie to my face. Nickles says he lives downtown. You know he doesn’t, I know he doesn’t, and it is a violation of code for him.
When will Mayor Fenty demand Nickles obey the law or resign his position?
I think there are plenty of other reasons to not like Peter Nickles. Somehow I have a feeling if Peter Nickles didn’t rub people the wrong way, and was considered a “great AG” then people would say “hey, look, he pays DC taxes and owns property in DC and receives mail in DC, so who cares if he spends some nights out in VA”
@Dave, while I agree the video is a little creepy. But I disagree on your point that nobody would care about his residency if he was otherwise well-liked.
True – if he was doing a good job, nobody would care about residency. But that’s just the thing, he’s not doing a good job. Likewise, if you and your neighbor get along, they probably won’t call DCRA if your fence is too high. But if my neighbor is a jerk you can be damn sure I’ll call them out on technicalities.
We can’t vote Nickles out of office. He has been found in violation of the law on numerous occasions, and despite extensive media coverage of his clear violations of public trust, he is still there.
This law is something you can point a finger at. It is black and white. It is demonstrably provable.
Sure, it could have been done better. But nobody else is doing it, are they?
What are the “more effective means” available? I am pretty sure that everything else has been tried, and most individuals do not have the resources to mount a legal action against him, which the federal government is not either.
As such I think this is entirely warranted, and unless the video-maker broke laws, I don’t see a problem with using every tool in the toolbox.
UPDATE: The video has apparently been removed, due to a “terms of use violation”. I’d wager any amount that Nickles or someone connected to him & Fenty was able to strong-arm that.
But even w/o the video, there’s ample proof that Nickles’s DC residency is a charade. Just as much as his pretending to be the city’s AG, when he really is, and always has been, General Counsel to the Mayor.
I add emphatic agreement to what has been posted above. But (and?) in specific reply to Trulee Pist:
The chances of Fenty firing Nickles (Hmmm… would that really amount to Nickles firing himself? It’s a pretty open question who’s really calling the shots…) are about as good as the chances of Fenty renouncing his Kappa buddies and admitting that the parks contracting process was bogus… or of Nickles issuing a legal “opinion” that contradicts any scheme Fenty and the boys have cooked up, no matter how shady and deleterious to the District’s interests.
It is the voters who can – should – must – fire Fenty, which will thankfully result in the firing of Nickles as well.