America’s Baghdad June 5, 2008
Posted by Webmaster in Black Crime, Police & Law Enforcement.trackback
D.C. Police to Check Drivers In Violence-Plagued Trinidad
D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced a military-style checkpoint yesterday to stop cars this weekend in a Northeast Washington neighborhood inundated by gun violence, saying it will help keep criminals out of the area.
Starting on Saturday, officers will check drivers’ identification and ask whether they have a “legitimate purpose” to be in the Trinidad area, such as going to a doctor or church or visiting friends or relatives. If not, the drivers will be turned away.
The Neighborhood Safety Zone initiative is the latest crime-fighting attempt by Lanier and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who have been under pressure from residents to stop a recent surge in violence. Last weekend was especially bloody, with seven slayings, including three in the Trinidad area.
“In certain areas, we need to go beyond the normal methods of policing,” Fenty (D) said at a news conference announcing the action. “We’re going to go into an area and completely shut it down to prevent shootings and the sale of drugs.”
The checkpoint will stop vehicles approaching the 1400 block of Montello Avenue NE, a section of the Trinidad neighborhood that has been plagued with homicides and other violence. Police will search cars if they suspect the presence of guns or drugs, and will arrest people who do not cooperate, under a charge of failure to obey a police officer, officials said.
I have mixed feelings about this, more against than for.
On the plus side, I can all but guarantee that there will be at least one violent crime precluded by this checkpoint.
On the minus:
(1) The DCPD must assume that all the violence that happens in the Trinidad neighborhood comes from those outside the neighborhood. Don’t they realize that there are enough troublemakers who live in the neighborhood? They won’t be able to stop them, because they’ll have proof that they live there.
(2) They’re only sealing one entrance point into the neighborhood, and only automobiles. Like it takes a genius to circumvent that.
(3) What if you’re a landlord who owns rental property in the neighborhood? Will you have to carry the deed to your property with you to show that you have a “legitimate purpose” in the neighborhood?
(4) They’re upset about “gun violence,” yet they will scruitinze people. Why not shake down the guns?
(5) I’m just waiting for the first complaint of racial profiling that comes of this checkpoint.
Comments
Sorry comments are closed for this entry