Chief Lanier doesn’t understand the problem with her new plan to turn parts of DC into little parts of Baghdad right here on US soil. In fact, when challenged about the new program, her defensive response is pretty telling: “We put check points in place all the time for major events around federal buildings and nobody cares. Now that we want to do it to stop shootings and violence in our neighborhoods, it’s as if it’s something that’s unreasonable.”
We’re talking about people’s homes here, Chief. We’re talking about hassling them at the end of their long day. And for what, exactly? It’s not like the people from Trinidad go over to Georgetown to rob the rich white folks who live there, is it? Crimes that we’re seeing are local. They’re within the neighborhoods, not without them. So the people that you’re “letting through” the cordon aren’t always going to just be innocent residents. So really, what did you think we were going to do when you decided to set up Sadr City in DC? Were we just going to sit there and say, “Good on you, chief! This is perfect!”
Hell no. Crime’s not as simple a problem that you can fix it with barriers like this. You might get more results just from having more officers in the neighborhood. Which is what you should have anyway. According to DC Law, you are never required to carry identification, yet this new law will bring that to all residents of certain (poor) neighborhoods in the city. So, really, Chief, go back to the drawing board and figure out how to really fight the crime, not just push it around the city with cameras that no one’s really watching, and regulations that make it seem like they belong in a gulag or an eastern bloc country. Okay?
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
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.
