Keeping Bars Open All Night

Ok, I hail from the City-that-Never-Sleeps and I'm used to having restaurants, bars, and clubs open all night. But I'm concerned about the DC Council's abrupt legislation authorizing them to stay open 24 hours and sell alcohol until 5am between January 17 and 21 for the inauguration. Why?

1. When legislation is enacted essentially in the middle of the night, with no public input, you can guarantee it's not the citizens of the District of Columbia who are calling the shots. The manner in which the Council passed the bill is reminiscent of the West End Library sale debacle. In this case, however, it's not a politically-connected developer that pushed it through, but the powerful restaurants and bar owners/lobby who generously contribute to councilmember campaigns.

2. I don't live in Adams Morgan or Georgetown, so for me, personally, it is not about the loss of parking or noise. It is, however, about safety, not just in nightlife heavy areas, but my own neighborhood as well. Inauguration week is already going to be "all hands on deck" with police resources stretched incredibly thin. Now our overworked police officers will be trying to control what is predicted to be as much as a quadrupling of the District's workday population all through the night, after trying to keep order during the day. You can bet that the increased bar activity will siphon what is left of neighborhood police resources to the club zones.

The police union, which was not consulted when the DC Council extended hours, is concerned:

"With our resources stretched so thin that weekend to provide security at the inauguration, we're going to be at the bare bones out in the districts," Kristopher Baumann, chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 1, which represents D.C. officers, said, referring to the seven police districts whose officers respond to neighborhood crime. . . . "If you're going to have the bars operating beyond a capacity they're operating under usually, we don't know what kind of manpower needs we're going to have."

My neighborhood had a shooting last Monday night, a murder on Wednesday, an apparent mugging Friday night, and a serious domestic dispute last night. Will police be available to respond?

So let me get this straight...

A suspect who recently turned 18 years old, let's call him M.A.R. to protect his privacy, is suspected of robbing 20 DC residents, coming up behind them, knocking them to the ground, taking their I-pods, cell phones, money. On robbery No. 21, the suspect is yet again taken into custody. The police, who have to their credit managed to catch this guy, are worried that he'll be let out onto the street and will instantly rob again. You see, he's been taken into custody before and released back into the community before.

Well, MPD Inspector Delgado takes community policing seriously and he's concerned, so he sends out an e-mail to the Third District listserve urging residents to e-mail our now official Attorney General Peter Nickles to beg him not to release this guy again. (Full text of e-mail following this post)

Nickles' reaction, to paraphrase, is "Stop e-mailing me! It's annoying and not helpful." An exact quote to the Washington Post, "I haven't touched them. I told my secretary to put them in a pile." Anyway, he must have thought, we have the guy in custody and he's not going anywhere anyway. Right? Right? So Nickles picks up the phone the next morning. Wrong. Oops, the prosecutors let him go. "No papered" - apparently there was not enough evidence, despite video footage, and the U.S. Marshals missed missed the memo to hold him.

So what do we learn from this situation? Number 1. I'm tired of having prosecutors and marshals who are FEDERAL employees. These folks are accountable to no one. They work for the U.S. DOJ and they are theoretically overseen by Congress. I bet if we had an elected attorney general, who had full prosecutorial power, we would not have this B.S. You know he would get voted out in a New-York minute for this continuous arrest-and-release law enforcement. You can envision the campaign ad. Same goes for our judges. They ought to be appointed by the Mayor with the consent of the DC Council, not appointed for a 15-year term by the president. These officials come from all over the country -- many are not from DC and they are likely to live in Maryland or Virginia. Perhaps they'd think twice if they took this kid into custody and he was let out for #22 on their street.

Seriously, enough. And I don't care what mental health or other problems this guy had that a court found him incompetent to stand trial. And there's lots of others who don't want to hear lame excuses for and defenses of the alleged criminal when a score of people have been beat over the head. The answer is to put him someplace secure where he can get help, not put him out there to rob again.

The e-mail:

Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:39 am

Good Morning Neighbors

I write this email to inform you that the Third District made yet another arrest for robbery, however the circumstances surrounding this latest robbery you will find upsetting. The facts are reported as reported below:

In the earlier this year the Columbia Heights neighborhood experienced a rash of violent robberies. This particular suspect approaches people from behind and hits his victims. Once the victim is down, stolen are cell phones, money and IPODS. The suspect was also identified as committing six (6) robberies within the METRO Rail System. Once this suspect was developed as a viable suspect in the METRO robberies, DC Police began to look at the suspect on several robberies as well. The suspect was was subsequently identified in thirteen (13) robberies in Columbia Heights. The suspect, who was a juvenile, was released from jail because he was found to be incompetent to stand trial.

The suspect was released back into the Columbia Heights Community where he committed another 6 robberies. The total number of robberies at that time stood at nine teen (19) robberies. Well the suspect was released back into the community and was placed in a halfway house where he absconded and came back to the Columbia Heights neighborhood. Well, I was never notified that he was released or even absconded from the group home. Recently, he committed yet another robbery, this time within the grounds of Cardozo High School. This is a total of twenty (20) robberies that this suspect has committed and I am concerned that if this person released again he may commit more robberies or worse harm one of you. I find this lack of accountability by the juvenile justice system to be a travesty and a disservice to the community.

Please view the enclosed OAG Organizational Chart and I ask that each of you write an email or letter to the Attorney General Peter Nickels and every supervisor, manager, and attorney under the “PUBLIC SAFETY CLUSTER”

Please remember that the email address is the First Name then a dot then the last name @ DC. Gov.

I expect each of you to flood the email system today because time is critical in this matter. Let them not release this criminal yet again into the community. You can refer to this juvenile as M.A.R., they will know whom you are talking about. I also ask you to forward this email to which ever person you think will assist in this matter. Remember flood the system….

Edward Delgado
Inspector
Third District Sub Station

Farewell Lt. Smith... and Thank You!

Tonight, Lt. Michael Smith will ride into the sunset. After 27 years of service, he'll be retiring with his wife, dog, 3 cats, parakeet, and newly-acquired beta fish to Florida. Lt. Smith demonstrated each and every day a passion for his job that went beyond belief. He viewed his mission as not just to be a good police officer, but to do whatever needed to be done to make the (his) neighborhood safer. For the last several years, Lt. Smith served PSA 307 - the Logan Circle neighborhood, but he lived in Shaw, his preceding assignment, and he was a 24/7 officer, radio around his neck, laptop in hand. And he wasn't one to let anyone or anything stand in his way, which is why he had troublemakers file complaints against him and occasionally got into hot water with higher ups. The community always had his back, just as he had ours.

Here's an except from a 1996 Washington CityPaper story entitled, "Bad Boy":

Adams Morgan residents first noticed something funny about Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Lt. Michael Smith when he started passing out cards bearing his beeper number. Then, burgled neighbors—long accustomed to waiting out five or six loads of laundry before seeing a cop—found Smith responding before they could add bleach. Things really got out of hand when Smith, armed with a nail gun, personally boarded up several Columbia Heights crack houses. He also helped residents rid their streets of burned-out cars and implored judges to send juveniles offenders to community-service programs. Now, Adams Morgan community leaders say MPD officials, who looked like slackers next to Smith, have conspired to make him pay for his good deeds with a recent transfer to the graveyard shift in Shaw. While the department insists Smith's transfer was routine, 3rd District Lt. Michael Gallahan says Smith was out of line. "[He] went out there with an agenda to develop...a fan club," explains Gallahan. "Mike would respond to every call he got. But community policing is about making residents aware of the resources out there to help themselves. A lot of those people [in Adams Morgan] need to get off their duffs and take care of their own business."

And so he arrived in Shaw and he kept pushing. From another article, entitled “The Beat Goes On: With all the drugs, prostitutes, and public urination in Shaw, it's a wonder anyone moves in. That's why Lt. Mike Smith won't move out”:

If you break the law frequently in Shaw, Smith probably shares a long saga with you…. He knows your name, alias, street address, family, personal history, and addictions (if applicable). Residents around the District are still demanding the intense "community policing" that Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Charles H. Ramsey promised when he accepted his position over five years ago…. But the department has undoubtedly given it to Shaw residents, whether they wanted it or not, in the form of a live-in lieutenant, Mike Smith. He's taken community policing to the extreme, and, in the process, has inspired glowing praise, a bit of protest, and two transfers…. "I live at 1203 7th St.," he tells the dozen or so ex-convicts. "I tell everybody that: thugs, criminals, and citizens. Everyone knows I live there. The 7 and O Crew members knew I lived there. They're gone; I'm still there. Somebody shot out my apartment window a few days ago. It didn't wake me up. It didn't even wake up my dogs. Some officers called and told me what happened, and I was pissed they woke me up for it."

I remember years ago how when I had the opportunity to present Lt. Smith with the Logan Circle Community Association's service award. I joked how they ought to make Lt. Smith Super Hero action figures, because they'd sell out.

Last night, there was a farewell party for Lt. Smith, bringing out about 150 people. This retirement party, however, was filled with neighborhood residents, not just fellow officers. I learned a few things. Officers repeatedly how Michael Smith was the rare officer who upon becoming a lieutenant continued to use his handcuffs and go to court. Lt. Smith apparently earned the nickname "big bird" early in his career initially for a bright yellow jacket he received as a gift from his father, it got locked in when he tackled a perp from a rooftop and the interview report with the fleeing suspect read, "this big bird..." I also learned that knowing perps fled over a certain fence in the neighborhood, he greased it up.

If you've been at any sort of community function with Lt. Smith, and he attended them all, regardless of whether he is on or off duty, you just expect him to run out at some point, handle a situation or make an arrest, and then return. He led by example and was one of the first riding his bike on patrol.

Lt. Smith, thank you for all your work on behalf of our neighborhoods, for making them safer, for being such an integral part of the community, and, for your continuing friendship. Enjoy scuba diving in Florida!

Another Hit on Community Policing

Just when I think MPD is moving in the right direction with more foot and bike patrols, up comes another instance where it is giving lip service to community policing, the idea that if police officers and residents get to know each other and work together, they can be more effective in combating crime. The latest hit is the transfer of Lt. Phil Lanciano, who led the Police Service Area (PSA 207) that includes Foggy Bottom and the south western portion of Dupont Circle.

I don't personally know Lt. Lanciano, but during my campaign for Ward 2 on the DC Council, I repeatedly came across residents who sung his praises. By all accounts, including The Examiner article today, he was a model police officer who had come to know his community over many years and earned their trust and respect. Now, he's being moved for unexplained reasons, to the other side of the city.

I've seen this all too many times before. In some instances, excellent officers are reassigned because there is someone out to get them. Case in point: MPD was under pressure for years to assign Lt. Michael Smith who is a hero in Logan Circle because a certain individual with a vendetta filed numerous complaints against him. Ultimately, when the PSA was split in two between Shaw and Logan Circle, Lt. Smith found himself on the Logan Circle side rather than in the Shaw side where he lives (congrats to Lt. Smith who is retiring and moving to Florida this month and THANK YOU for all your hard work! Read about Lt. Smith in this 2003 Washington CityPaper cover story).

In other instances, I've seen some of the best officers promoted from Ward 2 to other areas of the city. I've been told by one MPD Third District commander that this is (or was) a matter of police policy. According to that official, MPD prefers that those who are promoted be reassigned so that they do not supervise their ex-colleagues and so that they learn about another area of the city. While I can understand this reasoning, the entire concept of community policing is thrown under the bus when effective officers are reassigned from an area in which they have, over many years, come to know the criminals, the suspects, the residents and activists, the community groups and churchs, the illegal activity, and the places to hide. In each case, the community mobilizes to fight the transfer, with mixed success. Will Foggy Bottom get to keep its Lieutenant? I hope so.

Slightly off the topic, but there's more MPD and the DC Council can do to strengthen community policing. It's time to redraw some of our PSA boundaries so that they actually fit the neighborhoods that they are intended to serve. The greatest example downtown area is PSA 101. This PSA covers everything from Capital Hill to the White House below New York Avenue. The PSA even pops up to N Street in the Mount Vernon Square area between 1st and 4th Streets NW, apparently due to a gerrymandered Ward 2/6 line. That makes what is known as the "chimney area" easy to forget on patrols, as it is an island across New York Avenue. But the greatest issue is that Chinatown/Penn Quarter does not have its own PSA. While administratively, MPD has in some ways split the PSA between an east and west side, the area still shares officers and leadership with a vast area. That needs to change.