Tag: crime

Trust, a fragile thing

The only reason why I’m mentioning this article from today’s Washington Post, “The Court of Vanished Dreams,” is because the court in question is in the TC. According to the article a homeless fellow had a good idea, create a basketball league, involve area teens to keep them out of trouble. Problem was James Russell, the homeless fellow who started it, bailed on the teens and the other homeless men who were to be coaches and timekeepers, taking $1,000 with him. Being charitable, one could say Russell couldn’t battle his own demons which part of him meant well but another part didn’t and that part won. Not being charitable, Russell was a con man who not only took away people’s money but heavily damaged their trust in others. Trust is a very fragile thing and when it is damaged it hardens the hearts of the victims and makes it that more difficult for the next person who might not want money, but good will, time, mercy, patience, and or faith.
According to the article, the league used the basketball court at 1st and Florida on the Shaw side of Florida, opposite the Big Bear. I’ve seen groups playing there but never really thought any of it was organized. Next time, I’ll take another look and be a bit more observant.
There is a bit of a bright light to this story of a bum that let his colleagues and the kids down, another homeless fellow, Wade Simmons, who was coaching for the league took over. Though the whole thing is less than kosher, meaning if it were run by some responsible non-profit a number of the participants might be excluded. But it is good in that it allows the usual recipients of charity to be charitable and it is better to give than receive.

This page contains a single entry by Mari published on July 8, 2010 8:13 AM.

Steal this bike

Steal this bike This was the weekend of careless bike owners. I spotted this bike Saturday morning. The lock was on the bike handlebars and it looked like it was in the blind spot of any of the workers inside the structure being worked on. Later that day I spotted another women’s bike parked on my street so poorly locked it seemed to be asking to be stolen. The rear wheel was locked to the street sign. Anybody could have just popped the quick release rear wheel off and run off with the rest of it.
So what is it to me if some stranger’s bike gets stolen? For one, it helps increase the perception of my area being a high crime area when it does get stolen. Second, there are the periodic emails and messages from folks who’ve had their bikes stolen asking for help. I’d assume that the victims did take some caution in protecting their property. But that willingness to believe people made that effort to prevent their bike from being stolen gets eroded every time I see a poorly locked or unlocked bike.

This page contains a single entry by Mari published on June 28, 2010 7:43 AM.

Dunbar Marching Band Scam

via the Eckington Listserv
It seems some kid is going around collecting funds for the band, but it seems Dunbar no longer has a band.
I’ve pretty much gotten cynical when it comes to mealy mouth kids and fund raising. I don’t truly believe they are raising money for their school or football team. I may give out of pity or explain that I only give to the kids who live on my block, sorry.
When I want to do charitable giving I have lots of choices and I have a higher preference for those who I can somewhat hold accountable.

Alley Goings On

The worst recently of alley going ons was the attempted armed robbery that happened last weekend. From what I’ve heard, a young guy with a gun tried to rob a Latino contruction dude. I sort of heard something around about the time of the robbery, but when I looked out all I saw was one middle aged Latino guy yelling to some unseen guys. I didn’t think too much about it at the time because there are a few construction projects going on. But when I chatted with a couple of neighbors they told me about the attempt. Not sure what foiled the robbery, I guess the alley is a little bit more active (in a good way) than the robber figured on.

The alley now has a few more eyes and a few more people are using the back deck or patio now that the weather is getting nicer. I regularly hear the family across the way entertaining on their deck. The cat ladies several doors down hang out on their deck and I am hearing and seeing them on occasion. There is a house closer to the end that has a roof deck and noticeable it has an excellent view of the corner where the friendly neighborhood dealers have taken a liking to hanging. Decks and gates that give greater visibility to the alley have placed more eyes in the back.

One neighbor (as we were recounting the robbery attempt to each other) told me how the changing dynamics of the suprised one old bum. It seems the old guy was looking for a place to hide or smoke crack and his old haunt was closed off to him. The neighbor said the guy had this look of annoyance and then surprise when the neighbor (on the other side of the alley with his garage gate up) gave him an “hello.”

During the day, when I was home sick with a cold, I noticed the traffic in my alley. Because of the construction, there are construction guys walking and driving up and down the alley. There is also an employee from the day care talking a smoke/cell phone break pacing up and down. And as usual, school boys, dog walkers, and cyclists cutting through.

About this Entry

Previously published in MT.

This page contains a single entry by Mari published on April 27, 2010 11:20 AM.

No one magic bullet

The Help came over for dinner, helping me put a dent in the amount of chicken dishes I made over the weekend. As a part of our date I suggested the overly romantic idea of popping into the 5C01 SMD meeting around the block [sarcasm]. Surprisingly he thought it was a great idea, and after dinner we stopped over to the meeting that was already in progress. If you say you didn’t see us, we were in the back, and we didn’t stay long. We stayed long enough to hear about the parking situation and the Catch-22 the car owning residents of Richardson Pl. are in, and interesting things about liquor licensing. Did you know the city limits the number of A & B licenses for the whole city?
Anyway, we left and got to talking about changes in the neighborhood, particularly the drug dealing on the corner. The Help has known me since before I bought the house, and has seen the neighborhood change. Since he knows me and I pledged to be honest with him I gave him my answer and I’ll share that with you. But I don’t think it varies from what I’ve said before.
There is no one thing that I believe has reduced the dealing on the corner, but rather a whole ingredient list of things. First, I think we got better policing and policing got better. The Internet has helped a lot in getting information to the public, as opposed to the few people who show up to community police meetings. It also helped to have more police patrol cars going up and down the streets. Second, politics and city services. This neighborhood is on the ass end of Ward 5 and we were ignored by then Councilman Orange. With more people involved in local level politics, demanding and engaging more of the elected representatives, who then put pressure on city officials to tackle the crime environment. Also city services and servicing got better. Third, and you know I was going to get to it, demographic changes. There are a whole bunch of things wrapped up in that. The drug dealers need an environment and support structure and when there are fewer people who would add to it, it is undermined. There are fewer neighborhood kids to recruit. Fewer people willing to feed and house dealers. Fewer houses and businesses dealers can stand in front of or visit when they need to duck the cops. Fewer walk up customers. More people complaining and calling the cops. More disapproving eyes on the street. More dog walkers. More joggers. More homeowners. Fewer absentee landlords not caring who they put into a house. Fewer vacant houses. Fewer stores to buy MD 20/20 and a 40oz (remember the old Bates Market?). And lastly, time. All things change with time.

Spring is loitering on the corner

You know good weather is around the corning when the boyz start hanging around the corner you prayed they had abandoned. Well, it’s better than the bad old days when they’d hang on the corner in bad weather, day and night. So they started hanging out Wednesday, and they’ve brought on new staff. There is one guy I recognize from days past, but the other guys? Ranges from ‘not sure’ to ‘he’s new’.
With vigilance, hopefully, it will prove to be an unprofitable corner. Problem is that we are a handful of blocks from heroin central, over by where the Truxton Circle used to be. But so far, during the hour or so I was watching them, and really didn’t see any cars stop. I wasn’t the only one watching, a few others thought it was nice enough to sit on their stoops, or fiddle in the yard. Mix that in with the odd dog walker, joggers and strollers, I don’t see how that’s an attractive corner for a drug buy.
Also I want to thank the 5D cops who showed up and made several passes by the corner, and ventured into the alley. Of course by then the boyz had wandered off, but it was good they showed up anyway.

Unrelated Announcement– Blogger issues. Blogger is going to discontinuing a service I use so I’ll need to migrate my blogs and I’m not sure what’s that going to look like. So blogging may be spotty towards the end of the month.

A little advice to keep your iPhone from getting stolen

People, if you own an iPhone, you have a portable little device that sells for about $200 on EBay broken. Not jailbroken. Cracked screen broken. So imagine if a thief manages to grab it from you fully functional.
On the green line one afternoon, after work I noticed a young woman standing near the door, one hand on the handle of a suitcase burdened down with other bags and one hand, outstretched playing with her iPhone. Her body language just screamed, “Hey steal my iPhone!” She was conveniently near the door, for a quick getaway. The number of bags she had, made it unlikely that she’d go running after my imagined thief. And since everyone else on the train was in their own little worlds, the likelihood that someone would chase after this imagined thief, small. The distance she held it out from her body made it easy to knock it out from her hands.
She wasn’t the only young woman holding her precious iPhone a foot from her body, making it easy to grab. I saw another walking down 7th Street in Penn Quarter. She might as well have been holding it out another 6 inches further saying, “Here, here, take my phone.”
So my advice is when you’re out in public. Public being outside of your office, your dorm, house, your own private vehicle, hold your iPhone out no more than 6 inches from your body. Also it doesn’t matter what neighborhood you’re in because even Georgetown is experiencing iPhone theft.

Please secure your rear

I just came from a unrewarding task. While putting my trash can away I noticed not 1, not 2, but about 4 home security issues of concern that could result in a break in or theft from a home or yard. Now if it was just one house, I would go to that person’s house and knock on their door and point out that their back gate latch is unlatched, their rear security door (iron door) is wide open or any of the other concerns I noticed. But with 4, screw it. I’m just doing one and that one, the person wasn’t at home. I left a note.
I’m not repeating it with 3 more houses.
So folks I know the snow probably kept you out of your back yard and away from your alley access. Well the alleys are mostly walkable now and wood warps (why your back fence gate is open), so check your rear.

BACA block captains wanted

There is a workshop for folks interesting in becoming block captains on March 11 from 7-9PM at the 5th District police headquarters. I gather the goal is to improve the safety of the community. If interested please contact Jim Berry at jamojam at msn periodthingy com. Ask about the car pool.