“Dear Mayor Bowser, Specify a plan for addressing gun violence in Brightwood/Petworth”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Phil

Ed. Note: You can add your name to this letter here.

“Dear Mayor Bowser,

In view of the recent shootings, we would be grateful if your office could share a specific plan for addressing gun crime in our neighborhood. A list of gun related crime in the Brightwood/Petworth neighborhood over the last three months is listed below—this list should be considered conservative rather than comprehensive since MPD does not alert citizens to many incidents of “shots fired”. I am certain you agree that this level of violence is unacceptable.
At the end of December, when you “toured” Ward 4, you promised additional resources would be coming to the neighborhood.

Have these resources been deployed? Can you provide us with more information on what these additional resources are? Do you think the existing strategy is working, and might you consider other options? Are as many MPD resources being dedicated to our Ward as possible? (Side note: there are routinely 3-5 squad cars being used to direct traffic in the Costco parking lot in NE. Surely these limited MPD resources could be better used elsewhere, even if not re-directed to Ward 4).

While your attention to the situation in December was appreciated, residents would feel more reassured by a precise strategy—not ambiguous letters to the neighborhood, “tours”, and calls for us residents to be “mindful of our surroundings”. One of the shootings last Thursday was in broad daylight at 2:30PM; what is the suggestion for being “mindful” of this kind of violence? In December you said that “no resident should expect to live in fear in Washington, DC”. You are right. We need more information from your office about the action plan for “stop[ping] violence before it starts”.

• March 16, 2015—Multiple shots fired, 3rd and Upshur, NW
• March 12, 2015—Shooting, 5300 Block of 4th Street, NW
• March 12, 2015—Shooting (Homicide), 8th and Jefferson, NW
• February 23, 2015—“Car shot up”, 400 Block of Kennedy, NW
• February 16, 2015—Multiple shots fired, Illinois and Farragut, NW
• January 25, 2015—Multiple shots fired, South of Petworth Metro Station, NW
• December 28, 2014—Multiple shots fired, 700 Block of Varnum St, NW
• December 26, 2014—Shooting, 13th and Gallatin, NW
• December 25, 2014—Shooting, 700 Block of Emerson
• December 24, 2014—Shooting (Homicide), 3900 Block of 14th St, NW
• December 23, 2014—Shooting (Homicide), 900 Block Delafield, NW
• December 23, 2014—Shooting, 9th and Jefferson NW
• December 18, 2014—Shooting, Georgia and Quincy, NW
• December 15, 2014—Multiple shots fired, 9th and Quincy, NW
• December 14, 2014—Shooting, 800 Block Emerson, NW
• December 14, 2014—Shooting, 4600 Block of 9th St, NW
• December 12, 2014—Shooting, Georgia Avenue and Park Rd, NW”