Local D.C. government implements surge strategy at home
By
David Hoskins
Published Jun 12, 2008 9:00 PM
Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty signed an executive order last week
authorizing the chief of police to seal off select neighborhoods. Armed
officers will establish checkpoints where District residents and visitors are
required to show photo identification and provide a “legitimate”
purpose for their entry into the neighborhood. Those unable to demonstrate that
they live there or have a legitimate reason to visit, such as a medical
appointment, work or religious service, will be sent away and may face
arrest.
Mayor Fenty and police Chief Cathy Lanier refer to the checkpoints as
Neighborhood Safety Zones and have touted them as a necessary
“crime” fighting measure. This ignores the fact that the real
criminals in inner city neighborhoods are often the police—who harass,
beat and sometimes kill innocent civilians with impunity. The establishment of
an NSZ only encourages such behavior by police.
Chief Lanier is implementing the first NSZ in D.C.’s Trinidad
neighborhood. Trinidad is a historically Black working-class neighborhood that
has seen many of its low-income residents pushed out in recent years by
gentrification. The mayor and police department have used a spate of 22
killings this year as a pretext for wholesale occupation of neighborhoods such
as Trinidad.
Checkpoint opponents rightly decry the measure as an unconstitutional violation
of civil liberties that threatens to turn District neighborhoods into an
Iraq-style war zone.
“It seems interesting that police are willing to easily cast aside
fundamental freedoms for quick-fix, lazy law enforcement tactics,” said
Johnny Barnes, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the
National Capital Area. Barnes promised that his group would do everything
possible to protect the rights of the people.
Dozens of lawyers and law students are monitoring checkpoints to gather
evidence of rights violations for a possible lawsuit.
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