A brief question for District leaders, related to this weekend's fracas on the Metro:
How does a "brawl...which involved at least 70 youths fighting each other in a frenzy" that began "at the Gallery Place Station...and spilled onto the platform for the Green and Yellow lines at L'Enfant Plaza Station, terrifying other riders and causing a stampede" that resulted in the injury of five people, result in this:
"Two 16-year-olds were charged."
And people wonder why the perception of DC being an unsafe city persists. The question of why an out-and-out brawl, which went on for between 15-20 minutes across multiple Metro stations and lines, and sent several people to the hospital while frightening many others, resulted in 97% of the participants escaping arrest warrants significant scrutiny. Such as, why did it take police officers more than 15 minutes to respond to 911 calls from panicked riders who were ducking the melee? It's a miracle no one fired a gun, and that no one was killed.
In the meantime, while DC and Metro police, and various city officials, sort this out, allow me to offer a recommendation to the youths of the city: The next time you have a score to settle, instead of meeting down to the flagpole after school, why not board the nearest Metro train? Apparently you can go at each other, unharassed by local authorities, for as long as you like. Make sure you bring weapons.
Sigh.
Monday, August 9, 2010
A Question for City Leaders
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3 comments:
MPD and WMATA PD don't really like eachother and communication between them sucks. WMATA PD also has relatively few officers on duty at any time, and certainly not enough for riot control like this would have required. They initially responded to Gallery Place, then had to go L'Enfant, by which time most of the kids had disbursed (some to Anacostia as we know). The ones that got arrested were the diehards trying to kill one particular guy by beating him to death.
Also note that beating people is a pretty minor crime in DC, and most of them would have been released within an hour or two even if they weren't juveniles. As juveniles, they really cannot be held long at all for such things and they are certain to do very little time.
Remember, its an election year, and Mendelson is the Council guy in charge of all this (not WMATA PD of course, but law enforcement in DC in general).
Where are all the photos, all the metro stations are wired with cameras. These photos should be put out so individuals involved can be identified and arrested. I don't care if they only spend a week picking up trash along side the road, they should be held accountable. If not, perhaps the council and mayor should do their time for them.
Remember, Phil Mendelsohn doesn't believe crime is a legislative issue. Henceforth, all crime will fail to reach his radar, and we will continue to live under the tyranny of the "poor". This is short-hand for saying, your vote for Phil Mendelsohn is a vote for more of this type of horrendous urban terrorism.
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