“Dear PoPville,

I’m writing to clarify the details of a very unsafe situation brought about by the federal governments escalation of force in the district.

On Friday the 29th, Coolidge High school hosted a football game. Almost immediately, an MPD helicopter began to buzz the neighborhood at low altitude. Multiple neighbors than began to investigate what was happening when agents from FBI, HSI, ATF, US Secret Service (as well as MPD) began to swarm the school. I would estimate there were about 50 to 60 of them. Rumors began to swirl that this was an immigration raid (with a large crowd now largely confined to a closed field). In reality, high school kids had begun fighting, leading to the rest of the game being cancelled.

While the Feds were there, and as misinformation was spreading, no less than 3 small stampedes occurred (about 30 – 40 kids at any given time). Additionally, (more…)


“Dear PoPville,

Last night around 10:30 PM a vehicle was reportedly speeding while chased by federal law enforcement, hit a speed bump and flipped over on Webster St NW between 2nd St NW and Rock Creek Church Rd NW. We could hear a lot of helicopters overhead and saw a lot of non MPD on the scene so I grabbed my dog and went to get a closer look. (more…)


“Dear PoPville,

Reaching out to clarify the questions/comments that you get every year during National Police Week (this week, and ends today 5/16). The motorcades carry the families of police officers who have died in the line of duty. Part of police week includes visiting the National Law Enforcement Officer’s memorial, where family members go to see their officer’s names newly engraved.

In addition, please note that an extremely large percentage of the folks on those buses are families of NYPD officers whose line of duty death was cancer (receiving the diagnosis as a result of working in lower manhattan during the clean up from the mass terror attack on September 11th, 2001).

I was on one of those buses last year.”



photo by Gemal Woods

Ed. Note: CNN reported:

“Personnel from the Department of Government Efficiency, accompanied by DC police officers, gained access to the US Institute of Peace Monday after being turned away last week.”

A reader writes: “We see & hear crazy things that are now a daily occurrence in our government, sadly. Today, March 17, the aforementioned action was taken at the US Institute of Peace on 22nd Street NW. We know current actions are very different from actions that we may have considered normal. There is no normal today! How and why is armed force being used in a non-Federal institution and much less on the streets of our city?! What does MPD and Mayor Bowser have to say in response to this action?

Have we crossed that imaginary line yet?”

From MPD:

“On Monday, March 17, 2025, at approximately 4 p.m., the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) was contacted by the United States Attorney’s Office (USAO) regarding an ongoing incident at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), located at 2301 Constitution Ave, NW.

The USAO advised MPD that they had been made aware that at least one person was refusing to leave the property at the direction of the acting USIP President, who was lawfully in charge of the facility. (more…)


Apropos of it all, from MPD:

“MPD drove down crime at a historic pace in 2024 thanks to a focus on data driven policing, strategic initiatives, and critical investments in technology. We are leveraging more tools at preventing crime and identifying criminal actors than ever before. Our initiatives and investments led to a historic 35% drop in violent crime in 2024, including a 32% drop in homicides, and a 39% decrease in robberies. These decreases drove crime in Washington, DC down to its lowest levels in more than two decades.

Some of these initiatives include (more…)


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