Author: Prince Of Petworth

photo by Michael Starghill

Can anyone verify this? From the comments:

“At a community/police meeting last night at 15th and R, it came to light that Councilman Jack Evans (who was in attendance) had his car stolen over the weekend. It has been recovered by the police. No one is immune…..”

Meeting Report:

The meeting was well attended, an overflow actually, and I think the overall impression I have is that MPD is really doing the best they can with the hand they’ve been dealt. The vast majority of the meeting was discussion by MPD about the ongoing investigations. Interesting, and I’m glad their on the case, but to me that’s hardly the point.

It was asked of Lanier if she needed more resources, she said “no”, and proclaimed that MPD is patrolling the alleys and hotspots, we just aren’t seeing them. But I wonder how she would answer if you asked her privately rather than in front of Councilwoman Bowser.

Bowser didn’t have much to say, and cut the questioning short in deference to the ANC needing to cover other business. I think Bowser needs to make herself available at a meeting where the only topic will be public safety and getting guns off the street. This forum was not really conducive to getting any answers or asking any questions because of the SRO crowd and the lack of time. Maybe that’s what they want. Personally I would like to see Bowser and Fenty attend a meeting solely on the topic of what the city is going to do different (i.e. are they going to treat gun crime seriously or not?).

There was a some patronizing talk about how the people in the neighborhood need to be more involved and, from Lanier, a whole ridiculous spiel about how we need to take time to go down to every sentencing at superior court to make sure the judges do the right thing. Really? That’s the answer? If only we’d go to a few sentencing hearings that’d somehow convince young men that carrying guns is a bad idea?

That’s not the problem. The city council can make sure the judges do the right thing with one stroke of their pen. They, and they alone, can assure some minimum floor punishment for repeat dangerous offenders who keep getting caught with guns. If the city council would stand up for the citizens of this city instead of continuing to cow-tow to a small minority of radicals that think any punishment for crime is a form of racism, if the city would implement serious mandatory minimum penalties for repeat offenders, then we might get somewhere. Continues after the jump. (more…)