Not a Good Night in Bloomingdale/LeDroit Park

by Prince Of Petworth June 17, 2016 at 9:45 am 41 Comments

police
Photo by PoPville flickr user Phil

From MPD around 9pm:

“Robbery Gun at at 1st & Adams St. NW. LOF: 5 B/M’s, 17 to 19 years of age, S1, black hoodie, silver handgun, Suspect (2) black backpack”

around 10pm:

“ROBBERY/300 T ST NW/LOF 2 B/M’S 5’11”, SLIM BUILD, MASKS, DK JKTS, DK PANTS, ARMED WITH A SILVER HANDGUN/5269″

around 2:30am:

“Armed Carjacking/2100 Flagler Pl NW/LOF 2 B/M’S THIN BUILD,5’6″-5’9″, ARMED WITH A SILVER GUN/VEHICLE RECOVERED”

Also in Trinidad a reader reported:

“~15-20 shots fired, 1100 bl Queen St, NE at W Virginia Ave.”

Anonymous

Bowser, Lanier and the council need to change the way they fundamentally look at crime and public safety. Things keep getting worse and worse.
- fedup
  
  They should be ashamed. I can’t wait to vote each and every one of them out of office.
- Anonymous
  
  Or a yuppie mom walking her kid in a stroller catches a bullet. Especially if she’s blonde.
  Sad, but true. I think it definitely will need to get a lot worse before Lanier/Bowser radically overhaul their current approach.
Huma

Not a good week at all – this is in addition to the robberies this week at Flagler and Bryant. Also, here’s a recap of what the Bloomingdale Civic Association president (https://twitter.com/TJQ23) tweeted out earlier this week (my comments in parentheses): MPD officer is patrolling the neighborhood on a Segway in the evening (haven’t seen anyone yet), there’s a special beat for all tours in the area which means 24 hour coverage and MPD is coming to the CA meeting on Monday to discuss crime in the area.
- Anon
  
  I saw the Segway cop earlier this week, a little before 7 PM.
- r
  
  Seriously? Their answer is a Segway? That’ll stop ’em!
  - dcd
    
    Is it true that MPD got all the Segway cops the new Curry 2 Low “Chef Currys” to wear when on patrol?
    - Anon
      
      You’re clearly asking all the proper questions. Are you a detective perchance?
    - Anonymous
      
      No effing way. Please tell me this is a joke.
      Aren’t they $150+ per pair? And butt-ass ugly to boot.
    - dcd
      
      Of course it’s a joke. Segway cops are far to cool to wear shoes modeled after orthopedic footwear.
- Nathan
  
  I haven’t seen any police up near 1st and Adams. When I do see some, they’re parked over in the DC Water parking lot at 2nd and W. Supposedly DC Water was paying for extra patrols near their construction sites, but I haven’t seen anyone walking around in ages.
  - JMR
    
    They’re parked in the DC Water parking lot with their cars facing a brick wall or their faces buried in their phones.
- katemc
  
  There’s been a cop at the corner south of my house (4th St) to keep an eye on any potential hateful acts on the mosque, and yet my car was still broken into about 40 feet away.
- hliz101
  
  When I was robbed last November on Bryant, the cops had to leave to go to Flager and then started telling me about how awful that street is and how they’re there all the time.
  
  Obviously not there (or anywhere in Bloomingdale) enough.
  - Huma
    
    Plus the police car that used to be parked on Cooper Circle is gone too.
    - Nathan
      
      Though that’s also a different police district. I flagged down a cruiser that was parked in the DC Water lot when I noticed the guy that occasionally drinks in our alley and on the street, breaks bottles after he’s done, and occasionally masturbates in the alley. They first informed me that the Adams alley is 5th district, them begrudgingly came over to tell him to go away.
- kharr89
  
  This is pretty frightening. I live on W between Flagler and 2nd and I’ve seen cop cars sitting around the last 2 mornings. Wish they would sit around at night. I lived on Adams for the last 2 years and never felt unsafe. I still really don’t when I’m out walking the dog, but these reports are getting more frequent and intense.
Huma

Forgot to add — we saw a bunch of cop cars parked on Flagler yesterday (off 2nd) and what looked like a car that had been rammed into around 10:30 p.m. Was pouring rain and we’d already seen one crime alert so didn’t stick around to ask what happened.
- Nathan
  
  Yeah from my window on Adams I saw lights on Flagler for a couple hours around that time. I think they stuck around till past 11.
- flagler resident
  
  after stealing the car and driving a block, the carjacker ran into a parked car a block south on flagler. the carjacker apparently then jumped out of the car and ran off on foot.
  - Nathan
    
    Well hopefully they managed to get some prints from the carjacked vehicle?
    - Huma
      
      It was pouring so not sure if they did get anything. Also, the area wasn’t taped at the time we walked by.
tom

Not to be an apologist for the mayor and the chief, but what exactly are the supposed to be doing? If this were the late 90s we would have a tough on crime/broken windows approach. That is now considered wrong, but we haven’t settled on a replacment policy, beyond some vauge notion of “community policing.” . Personally, I would like to see a police surge as well as some targeted social serice/metoring-type initiatives. But, realistically DC is always going to have a crime problem. These problems are decades in the making
- facts
  
  we should be locking these f***ers up when we catch them. it’s quite simple.
  - factsssssss
    
    that takes jurors who are serious about crime and will push toward guilty verdicts and judges who care about victims when they are sentencing and detention facilities that don’t turn bad kids into even worse criminals, because they will eventually get out.
    
    simple. jump right on that.
- houseintherear
  
  Bloomingdale is a huge construction zone right now, with streets blocked off and a lot of dead ends. It’s a perfect place to rob people, and there are rarely any police around so it’s a free for all. At least that’s how I see it. Pre-construction, a cruiser would come through my alley once or twice per night. We are lucky to see one per week lately. So somehow, with more chance for crime, the police become less of a presence. So that’s what they can do- get some friggin cops out here.
  - Nathan
    
    +1 The construction has a huge impact and DC Water has not adequately addressed it. Due to the delay in completion, they’re going to be paying Skanska something like ~$4 million less. Great for them to come in 6 months late and under-budget, but how about using some of that savings to mitigate the decreased safety for residents?
    - siz
      
      actually if i recall this was originally supposed to be done by end of 2015. but yes yes to all of this.
  - Bloomy
    
    +1
- Anonymous
  
  I agree. From a practical standpoint, the Council needs to get off their butt and use some of our fat surplus to hire more cops. MPD is critically under-staffed, as many news articles and the MPD union has pointed out.
  Bowser, the Council, and Lanier seem to be in no rush to hire more cops. Why?
- Anon
  
  There’s a relatively simple answer for deterring these sort of crimes – BRING BACK THE VICE SQUADS. This would do a hell of a lot to help the situation. Sure, it may largely work as a panopticon, but these criminals otherwise act with impunity as they realize that their chances of getting caught are really slim. The odds of charges that stick are even smaller. They know this.
  - Anon
    
    Also, MPD morale is quite low, largely due to Lanier/Bowser policies. Again, there’s a pretty straight-forward way to address this as well.
  - matt
    
    Yes – bring back the vice squads! Why not? Let’s try something. It seemed like they were effective, let’s re-enlist them, and see if this 1.5 year crime spree is independent of the lack of a vice squad.
    
    Lanier experimented with eliminating the vice squad – the experiment is failing – let’s end it, already.
    - anon7
      
      The vice squads were incredibly effective at cleaning up neighborhoods and racking up legitimate arrests.
  - Tom
    
    +1. We need a mayor, Council, and citizenry who refuse to accept the horrific level of crime in this city and enact laws and policies to give cops the tools and protection to go after the criminals in this city. But everyone, the public included, who promote how sensitive they are at the first whiff of a police complaint which makes cops understandably wary to do what needs to be done to protect law-abiding citizens.
    - neighbor
      
      They have basically legalized package theft, theft from auto, and other minor crimes.
      .
      No wonder these things are happening with increased frequency when the loud and clear message from the city is “we don’t care.”
- Anonymous
  
  Foot patrols. Put the officers out in MPD polo shirts to make them more approachable – they would have their normal gear guns, cuffs, etc. Let them engage (meet learn names) of residents young, old, recent arrivals, long-timers, business owners etc. Their presence will be a deterrent but given some time and some supplemental training they can identify and possibly help kids headed down the wrong path.
  - Sydney
    
    No! It’s harder to carry on eight-hour long cell phone conversations on foot, and we might have to interact with the public occasionally.
Sparta

Bloomingdale residents: The Bloomingdale Civic Association is holding its monthly meeting on Monday, June 20, 7 pm, St. George’s (2nd and U). A police rep will be there to give a crime update. A police rep is at every Civic Association meetings to give a crime update. The more residents who show up at the Association meetings and voice concern, ask questions and request solutions, the more likely the MPD and city are to take action. Also, the meetings are a great way to meet neighbors!
- mellodcd
  
  +1
ANONYMOUS

I’ve lived in Bloomingdale/LeDroit for more than a decade. There has been a crime problem since I moved there, mostly involving teenaged perpetrators. These are not down and out drug dealers or homeless folks, and not professionals. They are kids, most likely coming from Kelly Miller and other area projects. Studies have shown for years that large-scale low income housing projects breed crime. Dispersed subsidized housing is better for communities and better for beneficiaries. Kelly Miller has been partially-vacant and slated for an overhaul forever. Why no progress? Yes, we need more police presence around the DC Water construction area, but we also have an urban planning problem. Why not push the mayoral administration and city council to pick up the pace on replacing the large-scale low-income housing in the area with improved, mixed-use, mixed-income housing?

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