Recently in Crime Category

It has occurred to me that the Help and I were really lucky. There was another robbery in the TC and as we had come home from an evening out the police were just responding. In our case we were saved by a jazz band. A woman was robbed by two men yesterday (2/1/12) around 8:55pm near the alley that is between 4th and NJ and Richardson. We were going to catch the bus back home but on our way to the bus stop ran into a musician we knew and wound up staying to hear him play 3-4 pieces. If not for that delay, we may have been unlucky.

What gets me is there was a patrol car on that corner a few hours before.

Last night's unfortunate mugging is just one of several robberies and break ins that have occurred in and near Truxton in the past couple of weeks. Channel 7 reported the armed robbery spree that happened on 3rd and 4th Streets on Tuesday. There was the armed rape-robbery in 3D last week that has worried many around here.

The police are giving the usual advice:

We believe that the community can assist us in this fight by:

keeping cell phones, i-pads, i-phones, smart phones, and all other electronic items out of sight as you walk;

staying alert to your surroundings at all times;

keeping your car doors locked while pumping gas;

and, perhaps most importantly, calling 911 to report ANY suspicious activity in your neighborhood.

I'd add don't fiddle with your electronics at the bus stop either. While walking home, I noticed a young man taking a keen interest in a man sitting alone at the NJ and R bus stop, but his friends who were 1/2 a block ahead of him, called him to "come on". The man was totally engrossed in his smartphone and not 'aware of his surroundings.'

A neighbor alerted me to this ( http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=186972), a sexual assault and robbery 11:30PM on Tuesday . The 400 Q Street is in both the 3rd and 5th Police District, so I don't know which block this happened. But whichever block this was on, my prayers are with the victim.

I've lost my councilman to the crime of tax evasion, and it may cost the city more money to elect a replacement than what he as alledged to have taken.

Anyway I'd like to remind you how non-aggressive the city government was in dealing with the allegations when they first came to light. Remember back this summer the DC Attorney General sued Mr. Thomas for stealing funds that were intended for youth sports. A civil case, with an expensive slap on the wrist. And remember the one who started this whole line of investigation was Tim Day (who ran against Thomas) and the DC GOP. Their efforts went beyond the usual opposition party griping that is so easy to ignore. They really pushed it and it stuck. I didn't think it would go anywhere, but it stuck, and now I'm councilperson-less.

I blame the one-party nature of DC city politics. I really wish the Statehood Green party was a little more active in holding the controlling Dems in check and accountable. This sort of scrutiny isn't going to come from inside the DC Dems. Remember what happened to Tommy Wells when he tried to hold Kwame Brown accountable? He got demoted in the committee shuffle. No good deed goes unpunished...

Homicide Watch is an excellent source, it's main writer and editor Laura Amico is doing the Lord's work by reporting on every murder. Not just pretty people, or sensationalist deaths, but every homicide no matter where in the city, no matter who. What you don't see from her blog is her sitting in court and the many hours dedicated to this work. What you do see and what I hope residents, city officials and politicians see, are the patterns, and behind all those numbers is a human life.

And that brings me to one death in particular interest to those in the Bloomingdale/ Truxton Circle area, William Mitchell. The latest posting from Homicide Watch has an affidavit detailing, from witnesses, what happened. It is an interesting read.

I would encourage you to support Homicide Watch with a donation by clicking the Paypal button on the site.

No nothing has happened yet that I know of, but I want to give y'all a heads up on some seasonal problems so that you can do what's best for you.

On the 5D MPD listserv there is a notice of how the Guardian Angels are volunteering on Black Friday around the Columbia Heights metro station to help prevent robberies. Well, that's fine and dandy till you have to get off the metro and lug stuff home, or are getting out of the car near your house.

Also try to avoid having packages sent to your home if you don't have a secure mailbox, you don't work from home, or the like. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam don't trust me to receive mail so I'm going to have things, even if they are used clothing bought off eBay, sent to the Help's work. We need to tell relatives to mail gifts there too. So far after living here for 10 years I've only had one package stolen.

Also, and this is just my pet peeve, crime might have nothing to do with it, but some of you need curtins or drapes or some decent blinds. Riding home at night I can see the whole entire floor of many residences along the way. I can see how big some people's tvs are, and computers, and other neat electronic things. Large windows and 1st level open floor plans will do that to you. In this Facebook age maybe some people like being on full display. Fine. Just know it just easy to scope out your house.

Oh, and.. I almost forgot, secure your rear. This weekend I looked out my back window, hearing the russle of leaves and expecting to see one of the many alley cats. Instead it was a human walking through the alley. And I noticed this human (white if you must know) taking a slow and careful look at all the houses. He wasn't peering over or through fences, just slowly looking at the yards and 2nd floors. He could have been getting design ideas or casing the block. I dunno.

I was going to write about the History Conference, and maybe tonight's BACA meeting, or a topic I've been mulling over ignorant reporters and legally obtaining firearms in the District. But no, an email from a well meaning and retired aunt has set me off.

It was another one of those crime emails that get circulated warning people against some strange evil in the criminal world. Snopes, people, Snopes dot com. I don't know if it's a generational thing, or it's from living in Shaw and being aware or semi-aware of the crime that does happen around here that makes me realize those weird fake crime warning emails are BS on sight. If someone is going to steal your car, they probably will a- steal if off the street or b- seize upon the opportunity you create when you leave your car, with the keys in it for 'just a minute', as one theif did sometime this year in the TC.

I'm going to say it's generational, even though I know of people in her same age range who have figured out this email internet thing is not for spreading urban legends or messages littered with dancing hearts. I suspect, from other emails, the cutesy ones, a lot of people in DC's DPW are of that same age range. Because if I do read the emails and scroll down through the address blocks, I see a lot of dc.gov addresses.

I hate writing about these things, but in one case at least no one was home to get hurt.

I gather some of you have been following the messages on the Shaw Listserv about the brazen attempted home invasion/robbery of a home on October 29th on a home on Q St. Since the email wondered about a group of men hanging around 5th and Q, I wondered if they are thinking about the groups of guys who hang out on the 400 block of Q St. Of the 5 accused attempting robbers, one Tevin Durant possibly of SE DC, was arrested and found with a gun.

Then the other day I ran into a neighbor who asked about the robbery on my side of the street. What robbery on my side of the street? I then asked some other neighbors and apparently a lone male had banged on the door of one neighbor's house in the middle of the day. The neighbor was in, working from home, but didn't answer the door not recognizing the strange guy banging on the door. So the guy, thinking no one was at home, went around back to the alley, and broke into another neighbor's house. Rowhouses are so confusing from the rear. Using the trash cans from one neighbor's yard to climb into another yard, he opened a rear window and got in. He got away with as many electronics as he could carry. He was wearing bright yellow tennis shoes.

Instead of taking in this information to get scared, take it in and think about how to improve the security of your home. Take a look at your neighbor's yard, if you're in a rowhouse and there is an alley behind you, and see what weaknesses there are that expose you to greater risk. You probably can't do anything about what's going on next door (unsecured back fence, trash cans that can be used to climb into your yard or on to your deck), but you're now aware.

See that bike on the far right? The blue one? Yeah, parts of that have been disappearing for months. The bikes on the left, they are new to the fence and I don't think that's a good place to secure your bike. The library across the street may be a better bet.

A general rule with bikes, they are going to get stolen. Either in full or in parts. The District Curmudgeon caught a pint sized theif walking off with a wheel. I've seen boys, also pint sized, rolling around on seatless bikes (they sit on the rear wheel bike rack). And we've heard of bikes being stolen off front porches, back porches, back yards even while locked.

I've been lucky so far, I've had 3.5 bike stealing attempts made on my bikes in the DC area. 1st in Hyattsville from the back yard where someone picked away the covering of my U-lock. 2nd in College Park where I caught 2 guys with bolt cutters trying to take my bike from just outside my bedroom window. And 3rd time at the Mt. Vernon Square metro where the rear wheel of my 3 speed was bent almost in half. The ".5" was my roommate's bike. He left his 1 speed heavy rusty bike in the front yard, unlocked. I was in the living room watching TV when I noticed this guy lifting the bike over the fence. I yelled, ran out of the house and chased him. The bike was such a POS that the guy only got a few yards down the block before he ditched it and ran away from the crazy black lady.