DC police to set up military-style checkpoint for cars entering violence plagued neighborhood

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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.

...

"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.

...

Pedestrians will not be stopped, which is something critics say might render the program ineffective.

"I guess the plan is to hope criminals will not walk into neighborhoods," said D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large). "I also suppose the plan is to take the criminal's word for it when he or she gives the police a reason for driving into a neighborhood."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0402205_pf.html

[almaty 19]

Pedestrians will not be stopped, which is something critics say might render the program ineffective.

"I guess the plan is to hope criminals will not walk into neighborhoods," said D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large). "I also suppose the plan is to take the criminal's word for it when he or she gives the police a reason for driving into a neighborhood."

chopf##k knee jerk policy

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DC is the new Baghdad. Or is Baghdad the new DC?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

It sounds like a polite version of Escape From New York.

Can we have Plissken for President?

Edited June 5, 2008 by Number 6

[almaty 19]

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Escape from New York was a great movie. Shame that the sequel stank worse than roadkill in the height of suummer.

[almaty 19]

the 2nd was a waste of Snake....and peter fonda surfing suxed..i always like steve buscemi, but he was wasted too..

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

the 2nd was a waste of Snake....and peter fonda surfing suxed..i always like steve buscemi, but he was wasted too..

The best thing was the baseball game with hand-grenades.

[almaty 19]

lol...

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Baghdad on the Potomac

"Welcome to Baghdad, D.C."

That's what Art Spitzer said when I got him on the phone yesterday, after Mayor Adrian Fenty announced his plans to, as the Mayor put it, "shut down" parts of the city where violent crime has spiked.

"I've been a public official for seven and a half years now." Fenty said, "I've lived in the District all my life, and what the residents are saying is they want to feel safe in their neighborhoods. And the number one way to make the residents safe, in the short term, is with police action."

Starting this weekend, that "police action" will be in the form of roadblocks in high-crime neighborhoods. Beginning with parts of Ward 5 near Florida Avenue, Northeast drivers and passengers passing through checkpoints will have to present identification, and give a good reason for being in the neighborhood, or face going to jail. This latest crime fighting initiative for the Fenty Administration is called, "Neighborhood Safety Zones."

Spitzer, who is the Legal Director for the ACLU of the National Capital Area, doesn't like the new policy at all. "In this country," Spitzer says, "you don't need identification papers and to give an explanation for why you want to go from one neighborhood to another."

Police Chief Cathy Lanier didn't have to hear Spitzer's critique. The Chief anticipated what his reaction might be at the press conference announcing the plan.

"Its funny," Lanier told reporters, "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've been doing it for years around federal facilities in the name of terrorism. If what's going on in our neighborhood doesn't classify as something that justifies this, I don't know what does."

Spitzer expects the new policy will end up in court. The District's Interim Attorney General Peter Nickles says he is ready for a court battle. "We believe the provisions that the chief will be applying this weekend are fully constitutional and will be upheld by the courts. We have the support of the U.S. attorney. This is an unusual remedy for a very unusual time period of homicides, so we fully support the chief."

One person who is not fully supporting the chief on the intiaitive is D.C. Councilmember Phil Mendelson (D - At-Large). "To stop innocent people, require identification, and require everyone to explain themselves is unlawful."

According to the Police General Rule outlining the new policy, what's unlawful is refusing to show a police officer at one of these check points your identification. Although D.C. law does not require you to carry identification.

Spitzer says the new policy is just a way to show the press that they are doing something after such a violent weekend that saw 8 people killed. Lanier says this has been in the works for a while.

"We've been working on this for the past two months," Lanier said. "We reached out to the ANC commissioners over the last couple of days to make sure everybody is comfortable with what we are doing."

[Traviesa 0]

They were talking about this on the radio this morning. And I agree with what they said that something should be done, but this isn't it. There were concerns expressed over local businesses losing customers because basically they're not planning on letting people in if you don't have a good enough reason.

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I

I agree with what they said that something should be done, but this isn't it.

What is? In your opinion.

[Nagishkaw 510]

Call in the cavalry.

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

but i thought dc had a gun ban..........

[000 0]

If you ask me what is being done is all that can be done, there really is no other way to make an area where 8 people were killed safe other than try to regulate who goes in and out and making sure they have good reasons to be there. We enjoy our freedom and we enjoy not being burdened with the need to explain ourselves to to the police but those same people complaining about the hassle would also be complaining if their child or loved one was hit with a stray bullet and died. What is it they expect to happen? What else could be done?