On Saturday, April 21 at about 9:30pm, a neighborhood resident was attacked by seven teenage males at 10th and O Streets. The victim sustained some slight head injuries as the assailants punched the victim, but is otherwise OK physically. The attackers scattered after the victim yelled out.
The victim and some neighbors contacted the police. Disturbingly, the victim identified two of the attackers with the help of the police, but the police have reportedly failed to apprehend either of them to date.
A while ago, I posted a few ideas on crime prevention. Admittedly I haven't followed through on some (like forming an official neighborhood watch on my block), but I have been diligent about others (like painting over graffiti). Other ideas have been proposed--like organized dog-walking crime patrols--but, to my knowledge, haven't been put into action yet. We all need to continue to be vigilant in watching out for ourselves, our neighbors and for folks visiting our great neighborhood, as highlighted by this terrible recent incident.
12 comments:
I hadn't heard about this yet...I am disturbed by the news. I live at 10th and M, and can say that usually its much more quiet on this side of the convention center. I will say that I don't park my car on the block anymore however. My 2nd day in my new apartment, I came outside in the morning to find my passanger side window shattered. The parking garage at work is much safer so I leave my ride there now.
I hope someone is not protecting the assailants from the MPD if they went and whined to him about being the real victims, themselves — caught up in Da Man's web — and being harrassed by the po-lice.
The reason witnesses do not go to the police is not some "code of the street" or sympathy for the criminals. It is preservation. Witnesses and their loved ones are frequently harmed.
@mikelicht - Another reason too is the way witnesses and victims are treated by police. I was mugged in that exact area back in January. I was the only witness, and the police were useless. Why was I walking in that area? Why was I alone? Was I aware that area is known for prostitution? (Disclaimer: I am female and the muggers were both men.) Why was I drinking? Why did I talk to the men to begin with?
It wasn't worth reporting it, given how I ended up feeling like I must have been walking around with a neon sign flashing "Mug Me." Yes, I made mistakes but I was *not* desirious of being accosted and stolen from regardless.
(Not trying to be combative - just offering another side to why people who have witnessed or been a victim of a crime don't bother coming forward and offering information to police. That was my last time trusting police with any crime report of mine. Being accused of being a prostitute was my final straw living in D.C.)
Some kids were verbally harrassing my neigbhors one lovely Saturday afternoon. I confronted them about it and advised them to stop that type of behaviour. Later that night about 20+ kids (not one of whom live on my block or were visiting homes on my block), gathered across the street from my home, more than I had ever seen in that configuration at 11 at night, not on the adjacent playground, just idling about on the sidwalk in the dark.
I thought it very odd. I took a snapshot (stupidly using a flash).
They immediatley responed with a clearly premeditated attack by bum rushing my house with rocks and bricks and trash. The police never came. For days. I had to go to the 3d HQs on V St myself to report it. ....
Two local church pastors, and members of the ECCA cult at the time, and the some of the police officers who responded tried to construe it as being some act of perversion that I would take a photo of suspicious characters in the public space near my home.
It's hard to work with these stupid people, but if we throw up our hands, the downward spiral will continue. And the stupid people are left to run our neighborhoods and our country.
Complain to Cathy Lanier to her face:
MPD Chief Lanier Townhall | Thursday, May 3
I live right at 10th and 0, and we were out at dinner at the time, so i did not hear of this until reading about it. i havent seen any groups of "kids" around lately, but i'll keep a closer eye.
Perhaps the police are unable to help because you described the suspects as African-American, and they've already arrested too many blacks this month, statistically.
See Eugene Robinson's DWB column in the Post today http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/30/AR2007043001333.html?hpid=opinionsbox2
I lived at 9th and O and in 2006 I was "pseudo-mugged" in broad daylight by a skinny black teen boy, 15 or so. "Pseudo-mugged" because he had no weapon, no size advantage, and was clearly trying to scare a nerdy white guy using some assumed, antiquated sense of racial fear. (Poor kid's not going to get much mileage in today's DC with that one.) I probably should have hit him, but I just pushed him away - he scurried away, I walked quickly home. Why bother with DC cops, anyway? Shaw isn't really unsafe, but it's not really safe either.
I think Shaw is ever-evolving and becoming safer with each passing year. With every new bar, restaurant, gallery, store, and resident, comes a corresponding step towards a more stable, less crime-infused neighborhood.
It baffles me that the police did not arrest these guys after the victim ID'd them (and indeed wanted them arrested).
To anon who said:
"Perhaps the police are unable to help because you described the suspects as African-American, and they've already arrested too many blacks this month, statistically.
See Eugene Robinson's DWB column in the Post today http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/30/AR2007043001333.html?hpid=opinionsbox2"
Gene Robinson is, sadly, one of the biggest excuseologists for crime in D.C. I don't care what the color of the guys who mugged me; I was mugged, by a couple of jerks. I was accused of being a flippin' pay-by-hour whore because I was a woman in a certain part of town at eight p.m. at night. (To note, I was in a Chanel jacket and jeans.) Now, what to say of how *I* was stereotyped? Oh no, I can't be offended by that, because I was "white."
I described the perps to the police, and the perps happened to be black. Oh, we can't follow-up on police reports because too many people of one race have been the subject of police reports? Well, can we make this policy formal so that crime victims know in advance not to bother with calling the cops? Or maybe we should just not go out after dark at all at certain times of the month?
Then the city is officially going to hell. What a b.s. approach. I'm ever-thankful to be out of that cesspool.
Good riddance.
Police in PSA 307 are superior to police in PSA 308. This is a fact.
Shaw Rez, thanks for posting this and it seems to have garnered a lot of comments. Especially from the anon crowd.
I'm disappointed to read many posters saying it's ok to not report crimes to the police. Please stop being morons and report
all crimes to the police.
And while I understand the cynicism about these things, I think we need to focus on more proactive solutions to counteract these crimes in the future.
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