Mount Pleasant DC Forum

[Dominic Sale]

This story and others can be found at http://WardOneDC.com.

I (and apparently Councilmember Graham) received the following email today from a Mt. Pleasant resident. I have withheld any personally identifiable information. Given some of my recent postings on gangs on this and other listservs, it may appear that I made this up. Frankly, I wish I had.

-------

Dear Councilman Graham: I am sure you have heard by this time that a young woman was attacked by four teenaged boys last night around 9:30 p.m. in the 3100 block of 19th Street, NW, where I am a resident. I was told by a neighbor witness that the four went at the woman with a machete, she screamed very loudly and brought the neighbor out and the four fled. The victim had been struck on the head and was bleeding badly but appeared to be in fairly good condition considering what had happened. I arrived home moments after it happened so the only information I have is from the witness and what she was told by police. Police caught a suspect but he could only be identified by the clothing, not the face, so he was let go, or that is what we were told. The police said it was a gang initiation attack.

We who live in Mt. Pleasant are very aware of the troubled areas just a few blocks from our homes. Most of us are also very aware of the horrors of gangs when allowed to develop in neighborhoods as happened in Los Angeles, CA and is happening in many cities in the US. Who really cares if there is a baseball team in DC if you are afraid to walk out of your own home or if you are a witness to a gang attack but are afraid to identify a person for fear of reprisals. Watch our property values decline as quickly as they increased if gangs are operating in the District. The threat of terrorism will not drive me from my home but living around thugs in gangs certainly will. The first priority of our tax dollars should be protecting the people of the city so that we can live, work and go to school fairly safely. Anyone walking around the streets with a machete should be arrested!

I am very concerned about this and other incidents in the District. How do you suggest we protect ourselves?

Sincerely,

NAME WITHHELD

[jack]

No machete, no Latinos, and not a gang initiation attack. A message from Inspector Groomes, below, provides current information about this incident, which took place pretty much at my front door. Key is the instant response of residents to the victim's call for help, quickly frightening off the group of kids responsible. -- Jack

"I SENT OUT THrough the 3d Substation site yesterday the following:

"At approximately 2130 hours, police received a call to investigate the trouble in the 3200 blk of 19th Street, upon Officer Quiles arrival he found a female victim bleeding from the facial area. She reported that three-four youths (and NOW we have info it was Black males NOT HISPANIC) approached her in black coats and struck her with a pole (NOT MACHETE)- they did not say anything or attempted to take anything from her for her neighbors heard her screams and they ran off.

"Police did a canvass and stopped one youth but she could not identify -he was sent on way - the Gang unit was notified and they reported that they will investigate it but they do NOT believe it was a gang initiation - the gang issue is preliminary!!! (she described her attackers as b/m 14-16 yrs old in black coats)

"Also to advise all - there was a similar attack on January 12, 2005 last night at 2335 hours in the 2400 blk of 20th Street where a male was walking home and three to four black youths in black hoody sweatshirts came from behind , hit him in the face with a pole and demanded money from him. They then ran off without getting any property!!! (he described the kids as being b/m 10-14 yrs old -short with black hoodies)

"The Third District Detectives are investigating both cases -- Detective Sam McGee has the cases - 671-6918"

[Dominic Sale]

[jamie]

Dominic, I think everyone would like to see predators gotten off the street. But despite the current administration's best efforts we are still an open society where we are mostly presumed innocent.

You words "allowing them to escape" imply that something was done wrong here. Who allowed them to escape? If you were there, what would you have done? As the victim, chased them down? As the police, arrest every Latino and/or black man with a dark jacket, and interrogate them until they confess? It's too bad - they got away. The police can't be everywere all the time -- nor do I personally WANT to live in a society where the police are everywhere all the time.

Crime is unfortunate. But it is not helpful to use rhetoric and bend the truth in order to promote your agenda. McCarthyism is probably too strong a word but it's the same idea. I think it does a disservice to the community to misrepresent the facts in order to "stir an emotional reaction" as you say on your blog. Please - give us a little more credit. Particularly since you held an elected position, you of all people should be concerned with separating fact from rhetoric.

[Bill]

I agree with Jamie.

I'd like to add that it is really sad that Dominic has to toot his own horn with most postings. Seems he must add "the story can be found on my blog." It is the same story you posted here. In fact, I looked at your blog, no one is responding to anything you've ever posted. I do like the fact that once you get to your blog, you can right arrow on the top and see other blogs people have created.

Dominic, tone it down, chill, get the facts straight man--you sound a bit hysterical.

Bill

[Chuck]

[New Neighbor]

I think Jack's points were (although he will certainly speak for himself):

(1) This was likely not gang related. Gang activity, IMHO, is worse than random assaults. Gang activity seems to connote organized and repetitive behavior. Random attacks are, well, random. While they are equally offensive to the victim whose injuries know not the difference, they do have different projected crime statistics ramifications.

(2) Someone helped! Somone yelled for help and a neighbor came running. Find the bad part there for me everyone?

(3) The suspects were not Latinos, which would be good to know if there was a repeat of this activity. Accurate descriptions of criminal suspects are good things, right?

-David

[Tom Bell]

Thank you, New Neighbor, for your thoughtful response to the previous posting. It said what many of us may have thought but didn't take the time to write. Personal ttacks in the street are frightening, but they have been a part of city life for a long time and won't just go away if we complain bitterly enough. It's reassuring to know that neighbors appeared quickly. Since there are many more neighbors than police, that response might be a more effective deterrent than foot patrols, though I want foot patrols too. People's willingness to get involved has made the neighborhood safe wnough for my family to life in for nearly 30 years.

[jheller]

[earlofwarwick]

Last evening, 1/18/05, on Kilbourne and 17th, there appears to have been another "random" attack. I'm not declaring it to be the same group, but it does appear to be the same M.O. There was an attempted mugging by what appeared to be two hooded perps on a couple. When the couple wouldn't part with their wallets, the perps struck the male (don't know whether it was a pipe or not). They then fled down 17th to a moving vehicle and left the scene. While this may not be gang-focused, at this point, does it really matter? That is, if these series of attacks are connected. We now have a pattern of violent attacks on MtP residents by what may be the same group of perps. The distinction between gang-related and non gang-related attacks seems to me to be grayed somewhat. The upside: the police responded fairly quickly and were very helpful, the neighbors responded even more quickly--a good amount of individuals flocked to the street to help the victims.

[New Neighbor]

Well, making the assumptive leap that your thoughts on randomness are directed at my post, the distinction is that random attacks rarely result in conflicts over turf. Random attacks are generally sloppy in nature and result in capture more quickly. Random attacks are generally short lived in nature -- a perp or group of perps either bore of the actvity or get caught.

Gang activity by definition is somewhat coordinated and more malignant.

If these are related (a big if), then the police need to act to do something special to put an end to it. Emphasis on special. The usual things that the police do seem to be doing a pretty good job in recent months.

Perhaps this will be a nice test of how well the police are doing.

[earlofwarwick]

NN--It was only slightly directed at your "random" comment. I was more interested in spreading a bit more info on what transpired last evening to MtP residents. That having been said, my point was that we're approaching a point of no longer calling this random. We need more info from the MPD, but this is starting to resemble a pattern and residents should step up their caution.

[jamie]

I think it's a mistake to think of any type of non-gang related incident as random or non-random and base your level of caution on whether a pattern happens to be noticed. I think it's pretty safe to assume that ANY incident that occurs is almost certainly NOT isolated. We live in the city. There are muggings every week in Mt. Pleasant. I would wager that NONE of them are "random" indidents; e.g. perpetrated by someone who has never been in Mt. Pleasant before doing "business" and who will never be here again.

My point is that you should always be cautious. The MO that has been observed for this handful of crimes, as well as the description of the suspects, doesn't seem especially notable to me (after the true facts were revealed). It seems likely that they were done by the same couple of people - but if you looked through the crime report details, you could easily make the same analysis of other attacks. The fact that the same couple people are doing muggings more than once is not only unsurprising, but to be expected, since I doubt it's something that a lot of people try once and then decide it's not for them.

The distinction between "gang" and "non gang" remains important, however, and very distinct from "several crimes with similar MO". One of them has to do with a large, structured organization, turf wars, rituals, and drug trade. The other is one or several people doing the sorts of muggings that happen all the time to make a few bucks. I am by no means suggesting that we shouldn't be concerned about both sorts of crimes, since as someone noted it doesn't matter who made you a victim you're still just as much a victim -- but it's a mistake to purposely gray the distinction between them since there are substantially different ramifications.

[jack]

[earlofwarwick]

I think you've both missed my point. If there's a spike in violent crime, perpetrated by the same individuals in MtP (and there's some suggestion this may be the case), whether it's gang or non-gang is immaterial in terms of it needing to be addressed by the police and in terms of neighborhood awareness. I'm fully aware that gang-related activities have different ramifications for the neighborhood, however, I believe you've both cheapened the effects of so-called random muggings "for a few bucks" on the residents in MtP. I do not think the two individuals that were attacked last evening would find much solace in your words. Nor would those attacked on other occasions under similar circumstances. Do you think the residents of MtP care whether it's a "gang member" or "kid unaffiliated with a large organization that strives to overtake turf, traffic in drugs, and carry machetes" when they're in the process of being mugged? A mugging is a mugging. While there are certainly larger considerations in the long run in terms of the effects of gang-related behavior in MtP, right now, muggings appear to be spiking somewhat lately. It doesn't hurt to recognize it as somewhat significant, notify individuals in the neighborhood of it, and to not cheapen it by suggesting the perps are easily scared and wielding only a lowly "pipe" vis a vis the machete-wielding gang elements. Last time I checked, both hurt pretty badly.