Tag: crime

A question

When chatting with some folks this weekend the question came up: What do you do when you notice your crackhead neighbor has stolen something from your yard and placed it in their yard?
A. I was shocked (shocked I say) that someone would take something and blatantly display it in their yard.
B. Then I played the devil’s advocate saying it may have been a visitor’s doing, they borrowed and forgot to ask, blah, blah, blah.
C. Suggested going over and asking for the return of the item -OR- calling the cops and having a report filed.

Crime & judgment

Today I decided to fool around with court report to see what crimes are being brought before the DC courts related to Truxton Circle.
Sentencing
1. Antoine “Cheese” Cooper of 431 R Street has been convicted of fatally stabbing a Mr. Jackson around 5th & R Streets on 11/30/2001. He’s up for sentencing February 3, 2005 before Judge Robert Richter.

Guilty Please
Thurmond J. Christian of 1700 blk of 1st Street was arrested not too far from home 1500 blk of North Capitol May 4, 2004 for distributing heroin. Judge Diaz sentenced him to 30 months on 11/2/04.

James Ross of 1100 blk of Sursum Corda Court was arrested around the 100 blk of O St. and found guilty of possession of cocaine on September 11, 2004. 11/3/2004 Judge Fisher sentenced him to 180 days confinement, which was suspended, and 1 year probation.

Marry Nelson of the Unit blk of Bates was arrested around the unit blk of North Cap & FL Ave for distributing heroin May 18, 2004. Judge Diaz on 11/4/2004 sentenced him/her to 18 months confinement, supended, and 2 years probation.

Antonio Newman of 1700 blk of Benning Rd, NE, was arrested around the 300 blk of R St for possession of cocaine May 17, 2004. Judge Ross on 11/22/2004 sentenced him to 120 days confinement.

November 2004 Paper Arrests

1. Martin Tabron was arrested @ 4th and Richardson Place for possession of cocaine 11/8/04.
2. Donna L Hood was arrested for distributing cocaine @ 1st and O St.
3. Michael Bradsher was arrested for distributing cocaine @ the unit block of O St.
4. Scotland Tolbert (is that a real name?) was arrested for possession of heroin @ 100 blk FL Ave.
5. Leroy Wilson was arrested for possession of cocaine @ 2nd and FL Ave.
6. James Burton was arrested for distributing cocaine @ 100 blk FL Ave.
7. James Duckett was arrested for possession of cocaine @ 1st & FL Ave.
7. John T Brown and Jason Cannon were arrested for distributing cocaine @ 16 O St.
8 . Frank Gaston was arrested for possession of drug para(?) on the 100 blk of Bates.
9 . Aaron Wells was arrested for possession of marijuana @ 207 R St, Apt #4

Please note all this information was already available on the web so I’m not publicizing the names of anyone who wasn’t already on the web.

Scenes in Shaw

Scene 1
Driving down New Jersey Ave to attempt to turn on New York I spy three street vendors under the shade of a tree. One is a Salvadorian(?) woman selling flowers. The other is a guy selling bootleg CDs. The other guy, it looks like he’s selling bootlegs too.

Scene 2
There are a gaggle of kids running up and down the stair case of a house. I see the white occupants sitting on the stoop as the neighborhood kids run around. One kid is fooling around with one of the occupant’s hair. It looks liek she’s trying to plait the hair.

Scene 3
Over at the Florida Avenue park I spotted three people walking out of the park. Two of the people are holding up the one in the middle. Apparently middle guy can’t walk. No one seems phased by the scene. Just another day in the park.

Part of the gentrification problem

I want to thank John for leading me to this blog about gentrification in Baltimore City [corrected]. Funny, Baltimore is the place I point people to when the gentrified prices of DC are too high.
Which reminds me. TechBalt is not purposefully trying to displace people but move into a poorer neighborhood take over a block and reap a return on their investment.
Wandering around Techbalt’s website I wound up linking to the city of Baltimore’s crime map. It is so cool. Crime isn’t cool but a colorful map of what type of crime happens where is sooo totally cool (yes I grew up in the 80s).

edited to change County to City

PSA 501/Bates meeting

I’m going to sum it up.
Didn’t start on time.
Was upstairs in the santuary.
Began with loooong Christian prayer.
Commander Jennifer Greene.
Florida Park Crew vs Sursum Corda crew to blame for shootings.
Mother of shooting victim gives emotional defense of son.
There are 447 parolees in our community.
Hillbilly Herion is being sold in our area.
Citizen- Truancy calls to 311 not being taken seriously by operators.
Citizen- Weed and Seed van useless. It just sits there.
Vincent Orange shows up. Is he up for election this year?
Question: Why can’t we get decent loitering laws?
Answer: Blame the ACLU for challenging it in the courts.
Left meeting, had to finish manic search for lost tool.

Open letter to developer

Dear Developer,
You knocked over half of a building. You left one side open. This looks very attractive were I a person looking for free shelter for the cool Fall weather.
You also left doors unlocked and windows open on your other project. A bit more attractive, for say Winter. If I were a prostitute both locations would make suitable offices for work.
Please secure your property.
Thank you.

True Crime

Okay I had no intention of posting today. None.
But I witnessed an assault. And I took pictures.
Well I was taking pictures of houses in the Mt. Vernon part of Shaw and was heading over back to my section. I pass this house on New Jersey and N, and I hear this wailing and banging. This guy, was just screaming. I can’t remember if it was “I’ll kill you” or “Die bitch.” But he was screaming and hitting something and I could hear it from the street.. with headphones on. There were other people along NJ who heard this mayhem too and were looking at the house. When I looked back, he was outside the steel door kicking it and demanding to be let back in. He kept saying he was going to call the police and so he went walking with this huge 1×4 over to the firestation on the corner of N & NJ.
A few moments later 3 guys walk out. One with one of those yellow wet floor signs, and another with a 5 ft wooden step ladder. They walk up New Jersey. Screaming guy sees them and starts wailing on them with the 1×4 in the yard of the firestation.
This is when I call 9-1-1.
I give a lovely play by play to the dispatcher. As I’m doing so a blue police van drives up and breaks up the fight. I mention this to the dispatcher and he tells that according to the colors it’s DC Housing Authority Police. Ok. Whatever. Then 1 minute later a police car from the 1st District shows up. Then followed by another 1D car.
At the end of all this, there were 5 police vehiles in the driveway of the firehouse. Two from 1D one from 3D, and I can’t remember if the other was 5D and the DCHA Police van. All to handle a guy with a big stick. In the end no one, as far as I could tell, was arrested. Stick man told the police he was heading back to wherever and a police woman said she thought that would be a good idea. I lost track of ladder guy. I stuck around because I did get a call back from the police but the police wound up interviewing a woman on the other side of N St. I was not going to jump up and down to get their attention. I left when it all broke up.

Then I went for brunch at Ella’s.

Crime prevention & DM noise update

Walking around I noticed something in the alley, the developers/contractors finally put bars up behind their house. The problem was the rear of the house had an unsecured entry from the alley. So I’d see kids, teens, bums going into this house’s alcove to do whatever. The slow progression of the owners ‘getting it’ probably started when they found people in the basement, which was open to all from the alley. Developers of Shaw, just because it isn’t visable from the street at 30 mph, doesn’t mean anyone isn’t going to notice that the door doesn’t have a lock. So over time I noticed damage to the building as it was undergoing stop/start contruction. The back door had a broken window, and so that got boarded up. I’m going to take a wild guess that there were break ins. I know, the house is empty why break in? Shelter. Contractor tools. Building materials. Later the basement got closed off. The alcove, however remained open so it could still provide shelter to a homeless person, or temporary office for a hooker. Now finally, that is closed off and teens and crackheads can stay out.
Thinking of crime prevention I always thought we could do with these signs I saw in London. Well the Kew Gardens section of London, because they weren’t in Wimbinton. Simply reminding people to not leave things in cars. I so wanted to steal one of those signs and take them back to the States, but figured it bad form to steal a crime prevention sign.
\\\\The music ended about 8:30pm. I did not call the cops.

Homelessness & Crime

Looking back at Jimbo‘s “Don’t feed the bears” post and all the comments, I’ll have to agree with him on some level. Just to clear up one thing, I don’t think all or most homeless panhandlers are the source of crime. However an environment where people just have cash money burning in their pockets to give away make an attractive environment for people who want to rob those people.
As mentioned in a previous post, my homeless policy is not to give away money. Food, tokens, and other objects, yes. Cash, no. Of course it helps that I don’t carry cash on me. I’m plastic. Cash and me have a problem. Cash constantly whispers to me and begs to be spent on stupid stuff. I have found that it is better for me not to have any cash on me for the sake of my bank account.
I have taken friends to task on giving to panhandlers. I sneer “white guilt”, because of the racial dynamic, the panhandler is usually black and my friend or associate is white. It disgusts me on a certain level. (channeling Malcom X) As a people we cannot be truly free and equal if we are begging the White Man for anything. Another racial/gender dynamic, I tend not to get bothered by the panhandlers for money. They know I, or possibly any other black woman (I can’t speak for men) won’t dig in our bag for them. I do get bothered for bus transfers by various types. Come to think of it, homeless women are more apt to approach me, but not men.
Ah, you heartless person you, you may think.
No. I give on a very regular basis to charities that actually help the homeless. I won’t go believing the lie some folks tell themselves that their measly $5 they give to the guy begging is gonna actually help. It doesn’t help. It doesn’t help them get off the streets. It doesn’t help them seek out the resources they need. It doesn’t help the less visible homeless who do work, or the homeless families, or the non-panhandling set of homeless. So out of my paycheck, a portion goes to support N Street Village and Bread for the City also I know a portion of my church tithes go to support Arlington, VA and DC homeless shelter and feeding efforts. I encourage you, yes, you. Yeah, you reading this blog. To regularly support your local homeless shelter. And don’t give my any lame-O excuses either, if you had $5 or more to give to the bum on the street you have $5 keep a shelter open or support a soup kitchen. Oh, but you just want to make someone happy? And you wanted the instant gratification of someone who seems worse off than you to say thank you for your $5? I sneer at you. This is me sneering. sneeeeeeer.
If you do give, I take back the sneer. Delete, delete, delete. G-d bless you.

Back to crime.
A heavy panhandling population, not to be confused with the plain old homeless that aren’t paying you no mind, seems to signal there is a money source. Tourists and suits who feel guilty, want that instant gratification of giving. Ummm. Yeah. People wandering around with cold hard cash in their pockets. People wandering around with cold hard cash in their pockets and unaware of their surroundings. People wandering around with cold hard cash in their pockets, unaware of their surroundings, at night/ when the area is deserted. Crime.