What makes the crimes in this stretch noteworthy is how commonplace they have become compared with times past in my nearly six decades in this part of town. Nowadays, crime is committed citywide without regard for age, race, religion or gender — the exceptions being in high-income enclaves in far Northwest and the White House grounds. (And I’m not so sure about them anymore.)
All this is worth bearing in mind as the D.C. Council and Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) work their way through the massive Secure D.C. crime bill, which the public safety committee unanimously approved this week.
The bill’s sponsor, committee chair Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), hailed the 115-page bill as a violence-prevention measure that would hold perpetrators accountable and improve government crime-fighting performance.
However, the bill is causing massive heartburn among criminal justice reform advocates, who complain it contains a lot of so-called public safety solutions that won’t keep the city safe. They worry, for example, about proposed drug-free zones where people in a group of two or more can be arrested if they refuse to disperse after being told to do so — if police believe the group was meeting for a drug-related reason.
Melissa Wasser, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in D.C., said in a statement that “failed and ineffective ‘drug-free’ zones do little to prevent crime.”
“Instead, they open the door for police officers to harass people and violate our rights. The District can’t make it a crime to simply stand around,” she added.
The coming days will bring more debate before the full D.C. Council decides the fate of the bill, which might take place next week. Expect to hear criticism that it only returns to failed “lock ’em up” policies that don’t advance public safety but give a false appearance of action.
Council member Robert C. White Jr. (D-At Large), a bill supporter, said he wants assurances that the omnibus measure addresses the root causes of crime.
Which gets us back to the streets of Ward 4 and lookouts for dudes wearing all-black clothing, roaming the streets, searching for people to rob. I think about those people but also the person who shot and killed 32-year-old Torrell O’Neal Page within walking distance of my home on Christmas morning. And the individual who fatally wounded 49-year-old Neil Clark on Buchanan Street NW a few blocks south of my house a few days earlier.
I understand what White and others are talking about when they clamor for city leaders to confront crime’s “root causes.” They seek efforts to tackle socioeconomic issues linked to crime: poverty, hunger, economic hardship, family and community breakdown, absentee fathers, racism.
I would add one more cause with dire consequences that have not been undone.
The most destructive force to strike my native District of Columbia in my lifetime has been displacement: the forced removal of Black families and their community-binding activities and institutions from areas such as the Foggy Bottom and West End neighborhoods of Northwest D.C. and the southwest side of town. Displacement of thousands from places they had lived for generations to make room for new housing, better buildings and ultimately more affluent and privileged people.
Black neighborhoods that looked shabby to outsiders and, in fact, might have had poor living conditions but were nonetheless vibrant and cohesive and anchored by churches and people who were maybe janitors, elevator operators, maids and chauffeurs by day yet respected elders and shapers of values at night when they got home. Some of our schoolteachers, pastors and physicians who made house calls lived nearby. Undertakers and numbers gambling places, too.
That was dismantled. People — families — scattered from their churches, jobs and each other. Estranged from established community values.
Forced displacement in the ’50s had, and is still having, an intergenerational impact on this city. Prosperous neighborhoods such as the Wharf, West End and Navy Yard came with a high human price.
So today, check out the mothers and fathers of those youngsters doing the robbing and shooting. Check out their parents and their histories. Our history. Our root causes.
Have at it on crime, Mayor and D.C. Council.
Have at the real root causes, too.
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