Are D.C. residents divided on what to do with police reform, crime, etc.?

[Anonymous]

I'm black.

I grew up in a community where black respectability is strong. The elders simply will not tolerate wayward behavior in kids. Those kids grow up to be educated, productive members of society. They have children that are also well-parented. And so on.

Living in DC (trendy, gentrifying neighborhood) has been an adjustment, to put it mildly. I finally understand what it's like to feel outright disgust about my own skinfolk. The absolute trash behavior that gets passed off as "culture" here is just ... I can't even.

I woke up this morning to discarded fast food packaging and several used condoms in front of my house. Again.

I want the city government and police to treat nuisance crimes as seriously as armed robbery.

I want more policing. I want aggressive behavior profiling. Not to be confused with racial profiling -- behavior profiling. People roaming around looking for an opportunity to commit a crime absolutely behave differently from a couple of friends walking down the street together to get from point A to point B. The latter should be left alone. The former should be stopped and evaluated.

I want a dedicated mental health squad that patrols the streets to deal with people behaving erratically, obviously under the influence of a substance or untreated mental illness. Wrap them up, take them to an institution, treat them on the taxpayer's dollar.

I want the city to hire an army of street cleaners to walk around and pick up garbage. Every neighborhood. Every block. Every day.

DC could be soooo much better than it is, much nicer, much prettier, much higher quality of life for ALL residents. But it will take real political will to eliminate the cancer growing deep here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm black.

I grew up in a community where black respectability is strong. The elders simply will not tolerate wayward behavior in kids. Those kids grow up to be educated, productive members of society. They have children that are also well-parented. And so on.

Living in DC (trendy, gentrifying neighborhood) has been an adjustment, to put it mildly. I finally understand what it's like to feel outright disgust about my own skinfolk. The absolute trash behavior that gets passed off as "culture" here is just ... I can't even.

I woke up this morning to discarded fast food packaging and several used condoms in front of my house. Again.

I want the city government and police to treat nuisance crimes as seriously as armed robbery.

I want more policing. I want aggressive behavior profiling. Not to be confused with racial profiling -- behavior profiling. People roaming around looking for an opportunity to commit a crime absolutely behave differently from a couple of friends walking down the street together to get from point A to point B. The latter should be left alone. The former should be stopped and evaluated.

I want a dedicated mental health squad that patrols the streets to deal with people behaving erratically, obviously under the influence of a substance or untreated mental illness. Wrap them up, take them to an institution, treat them on the taxpayer's dollar.

I want the city to hire an army of street cleaners to walk around and pick up garbage. Every neighborhood. Every block. Every day.

DC could be soooo much better than it is, much nicer, much prettier, much higher quality of life for ALL residents. But it will take real political will to eliminate the cancer growing deep here.

Have you considered voting moderate Democrat or Independent or Republican? I am a moderate DC Republican and want all the same things. They will never happen with the far left Council. The happiest I've been with our city's governance was Tony Williams. I would vote him for President; however, he did his service and retired gracefully. I am born and bred in DC and have worked extensively in all communities, SES, demographics. It's a lovely city and blaming everything on gentrification is lazy thinking.

[Anonymous]

Just to add on, pushing high density is also lazy thinking. Put a supermarket with a police service station in a supermarket desert neighborhood if you want to "build" vibrancy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm black.

I grew up in a community where black respectability is strong. The elders simply will not tolerate wayward behavior in kids. Those kids grow up to be educated, productive members of society. They have children that are also well-parented. And so on.

Living in DC (trendy, gentrifying neighborhood) has been an adjustment, to put it mildly. I finally understand what it's like to feel outright disgust about my own skinfolk. The absolute trash behavior that gets passed off as "culture" here is just ... I can't even.

I woke up this morning to discarded fast food packaging and several used condoms in front of my house. Again.

I want the city government and police to treat nuisance crimes as seriously as armed robbery.

I want more policing. I want aggressive behavior profiling. Not to be confused with racial profiling -- behavior profiling. People roaming around looking for an opportunity to commit a crime absolutely behave differently from a couple of friends walking down the street together to get from point A to point B. The latter should be left alone. The former should be stopped and evaluated.

I want a dedicated mental health squad that patrols the streets to deal with people behaving erratically, obviously under the influence of a substance or untreated mental illness. Wrap them up, take them to an institution, treat them on the taxpayer's dollar.

I want the city to hire an army of street cleaners to walk around and pick up garbage. Every neighborhood. Every block. Every day.

DC could be soooo much better than it is, much nicer, much prettier, much higher quality of life for ALL residents. But it will take real political will to eliminate the cancer growing deep here.

Have you considered voting moderate Democrat or Independent or Republican? I am a moderate DC Republican and want all the same things. They will never happen with the far left Council. The happiest I've been with our city's governance was Tony Williams. I would vote him for President; however, he did his service and retired gracefully. I am born and bred in DC and have worked extensively in all communities, SES, demographics. It's a lovely city and blaming everything on gentrification is lazy thinking.

Honestly, I might have considered being a Republican during the 1990s. The Republican party today is different, heinous, and I want no part of it. On the national level, the Democrats are a center-right party. As long as we are stuck with a two-party system, I will vote Democrat every time. I do support Independents (who, let's face it, are really Democrats) on the city level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm black.

I grew up in a community where black respectability is strong. The elders simply will not tolerate wayward behavior in kids. Those kids grow up to be educated, productive members of society. They have children that are also well-parented. And so on.

Living in DC (trendy, gentrifying neighborhood) has been an adjustment, to put it mildly. I finally understand what it's like to feel outright disgust about my own skinfolk. The absolute trash behavior that gets passed off as "culture" here is just ... I can't even.

I woke up this morning to discarded fast food packaging and several used condoms in front of my house. Again.

I want the city government and police to treat nuisance crimes as seriously as armed robbery.

I want more policing. I want aggressive behavior profiling. Not to be confused with racial profiling -- behavior profiling. People roaming around looking for an opportunity to commit a crime absolutely behave differently from a couple of friends walking down the street together to get from point A to point B. The latter should be left alone. The former should be stopped and evaluated.

I want a dedicated mental health squad that patrols the streets to deal with people behaving erratically, obviously under the influence of a substance or untreated mental illness. Wrap them up, take them to an institution, treat them on the taxpayer's dollar.

I want the city to hire an army of street cleaners to walk around and pick up garbage. Every neighborhood. Every block. Every day.

DC could be soooo much better than it is, much nicer, much prettier, much higher quality of life for ALL residents. But it will take real political will to eliminate the cancer growing deep here.

Have you considered voting moderate Democrat or Independent or Republican? I am a moderate DC Republican and want all the same things. They will never happen with the far left Council. The happiest I've been with our city's governance was Tony Williams. I would vote him for President; however, he did his service and retired gracefully. I am born and bred in DC and have worked extensively in all communities, SES, demographics. It's a lovely city and blaming everything on gentrification is lazy thinking.

Honestly, I might have considered being a Republican during the 1990s. The Republican party today is different, heinous, and I want no part of it. On the national level, the Democrats are a center-right party. As long as we are stuck with a two-party system, I will vote Democrat every time. I do support Independents (who, let's face it, are really Democrats) on the city level.

Fair, I think you would find though that a lot of Republicans in urban areas and DC would be Democrats anywhere else, especially on social issues. What we are not is San Francisco style liberals, which describes a LOT of the city council, who are antithetical to the types of interventions you would like to see. They are all for turning a blind eye to "nuisance" issues; their law and order stance rests on that. Consider looking beyond the political labels, or looking at them in context?

[Anonymous]

I think the violence in some African American communities is directly related to the over-incarceration of men who are fathers, removing disciplinarians/role models/care-givers etc. from the community. Defund the police? Yes, please. Certainly. These communities are over policed, people robbed of their civil rights, abandoned, and need the resources previously committed to policing transferred to education, jobs programs, counseling, cleaning the streets, health and wellness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the violence in some African American communities is directly related to the over-incarceration of men who are fathers, removing disciplinarians/role models/care-givers etc. from the community. Defund the police? Yes, please. Certainly. These communities are over policed, people robbed of their civil rights, abandoned, and need the resources previously committed to policing transferred to education, jobs programs, counseling, cleaning the streets, health and wellness.

Unfortunately in the crack wars, blood was running in the streets. remember how the nickname for DC was "Murder One" and the nickname for Meridian hill/Malcolm X Park was Murder Park? There were Isis style executions round there where people were forced to their knees and shot in the head. The war on drugs, 3 strikes and incarceration may have caused some of the above, but it also saved lives immediately. So it's sort of coulda, woulda , shoulda. However, today these neighborhoods are hardly over-policed. And we do supposedly have quite a bit of all the above programs now though. The DC Youth Rehabilitation Act, for example, is supposed to intervene and rehabilitate youth. How's that going? So yeah, spend more on that until you actually get results. Not sure why the police, who barely touch most crime in this city besides outright murder, need be defunded though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the violence in some African American communities is directly related to the over-incarceration of men who are fathers, removing disciplinarians/role models/care-givers etc. from the community. Defund the police? Yes, please. Certainly. These communities are over policed, people robbed of their civil rights, abandoned, and need the resources previously committed to policing transferred to education, jobs programs, counseling, cleaning the streets, health and wellness.

Right, it's not just "defund the police". It's "fund all the other things people need to live a life with dignity."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the violence in some African American communities is directly related to the over-incarceration of men who are fathers, removing disciplinarians/role models/care-givers etc. from the community. Defund the police? Yes, please. Certainly. These communities are over policed, people robbed of their civil rights, abandoned, and need the resources previously committed to policing transferred to education, jobs programs, counseling, cleaning the streets, health and wellness.

Unfortunately in the crack wars, blood was running in the streets. remember how the nickname for DC was "Murder One" and the nickname for Meridian hill/Malcolm X Park was Murder Park? There were Isis style executions round there where people were forced to their knees and shot in the head. The war on drugs, 3 strikes and incarceration may have caused some of the above, but it also saved lives immediately. So it's sort of coulda, woulda , shoulda. However, today these neighborhoods are hardly over-policed. And we do supposedly have quite a bit of all the above programs now though. The DC Youth Rehabilitation Act, for example, is supposed to intervene and rehabilitate youth. How's that going? So yeah, spend more on that until you actually get results. Not sure why the police, who barely touch most crime in this city besides outright murder, need be defunded though.

So what exactly are the police doing for us?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Woke white people want to defund the police and clap themselves on the back for being a friend to the black person.

Black people want more police to keep their streets safe and allow their kids to get ice-cream without being shot.

There is a reason why Trayon White is so popular.

Black people also don't want police to shoot their kid who is reaching for an ice cream cone.

Right. This black person wants safe streets and police reform. How is that controversial?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the violence in some African American communities is directly related to the over-incarceration of men who are fathers, removing disciplinarians/role models/care-givers etc. from the community. Defund the police? Yes, please. Certainly. These communities are over policed, people robbed of their civil rights, abandoned, and need the resources previously committed to policing transferred to education, jobs programs, counseling, cleaning the streets, health and wellness.

Unfortunately in the crack wars, blood was running in the streets. remember how the nickname for DC was "Murder One" and the nickname for Meridian hill/Malcolm X Park was Murder Park? There were Isis style executions round there where people were forced to their knees and shot in the head. The war on drugs, 3 strikes and incarceration may have caused some of the above, but it also saved lives immediately. So it's sort of coulda, woulda , shoulda. However, today these neighborhoods are hardly over-policed. And we do supposedly have quite a bit of all the above programs now though. The DC Youth Rehabilitation Act, for example, is supposed to intervene and rehabilitate youth. How's that going? So yeah, spend more on that until you actually get results. Not sure why the police, who barely touch most crime in this city besides outright murder, need be defunded though.

So what exactly are the police doing for us?

I presume that they investigate serious crimes and some other little stuff. I saw them helping someone get into his car the other day. They came once when someone was lying face planted in our bushes. What would you like them to do for us?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the violence in some African American communities is directly related to the over-incarceration of men who are fathers, removing disciplinarians/role models/care-givers etc. from the community. Defund the police? Yes, please. Certainly. These communities are over policed, people robbed of their civil rights, abandoned, and need the resources previously committed to policing transferred to education, jobs programs, counseling, cleaning the streets, health and wellness.

Unfortunately in the crack wars, blood was running in the streets. remember how the nickname for DC was "Murder One" and the nickname for Meridian hill/Malcolm X Park was Murder Park? There were Isis style executions round there where people were forced to their knees and shot in the head. The war on drugs, 3 strikes and incarceration may have caused some of the above, but it also saved lives immediately. So it's sort of coulda, woulda , shoulda. However, today these neighborhoods are hardly over-policed. And we do supposedly have quite a bit of all the above programs now though. The DC Youth Rehabilitation Act, for example, is supposed to intervene and rehabilitate youth. How's that going? So yeah, spend more on that until you actually get results. Not sure why the police, who barely touch most crime in this city besides outright murder, need be defunded though.

So what exactly are the police doing for us?

I presume that they investigate serious crimes and some other little stuff. I saw them helping someone get into his car the other day. They came once when someone was lying face planted in our bushes. What would you like them to do for us?

Sounds like EMTs would work for the second, and unarmed investigators would cover a lot of the rest. Different skill sets than what a police department would screen and train for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the violence in some African American communities is directly related to the over-incarceration of men who are fathers, removing disciplinarians/role models/care-givers etc. from the community. Defund the police? Yes, please. Certainly. These communities are over policed, people robbed of their civil rights, abandoned, and need the resources previously committed to policing transferred to education, jobs programs, counseling, cleaning the streets, health and wellness.

Unfortunately in the crack wars, blood was running in the streets. remember how the nickname for DC was "Murder One" and the nickname for Meridian hill/Malcolm X Park was Murder Park? There were Isis style executions round there where people were forced to their knees and shot in the head. The war on drugs, 3 strikes and incarceration may have caused some of the above, but it also saved lives immediately. So it's sort of coulda, woulda , shoulda. However, today these neighborhoods are hardly over-policed. And we do supposedly have quite a bit of all the above programs now though. The DC Youth Rehabilitation Act, for example, is supposed to intervene and rehabilitate youth. How's that going? So yeah, spend more on that until you actually get results. Not sure why the police, who barely touch most crime in this city besides outright murder, need be defunded though.

So what exactly are the police doing for us?

I presume that they investigate serious crimes and some other little stuff. I saw them helping someone get into his car the other day. They came once when someone was lying face planted in our bushes. What would you like them to do for us?

Sounds like EMTs would work for the second, and unarmed investigators would cover a lot of the rest. Different skill sets than what a police department would screen and train for.

I guess I'm missing your point. What would you like police to do for us? I am (tragically) acquainted with people who have been murdered and violently raped in Washington, DC. Should the unarmed investigators cover that? I am just unclear what you are proposing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm black.

I grew up in a community where black respectability is strong. The elders simply will not tolerate wayward behavior in kids. Those kids grow up to be educated, productive members of society. They have children that are also well-parented. And so on.

Living in DC (trendy, gentrifying neighborhood) has been an adjustment, to put it mildly. I finally understand what it's like to feel outright disgust about my own skinfolk. The absolute trash behavior that gets passed off as "culture" here is just ... I can't even.

I woke up this morning to discarded fast food packaging and several used condoms in front of my house. Again.

I want the city government and police to treat nuisance crimes as seriously as armed robbery.

I want more policing. I want aggressive behavior profiling. Not to be confused with racial profiling -- behavior profiling. People roaming around looking for an opportunity to commit a crime absolutely behave differently from a couple of friends walking down the street together to get from point A to point B. The latter should be left alone. The former should be stopped and evaluated.

I want a dedicated mental health squad that patrols the streets to deal with people behaving erratically, obviously under the influence of a substance or untreated mental illness. Wrap them up, take them to an institution, treat them on the taxpayer's dollar.

I want the city to hire an army of street cleaners to walk around and pick up garbage. Every neighborhood. Every block. Every day.

DC could be soooo much better than it is, much nicer, much prettier, much higher quality of life for ALL residents. But it will take real political will to eliminate the cancer growing deep here.

I agree with most of this! But in practice, social workers go up to someone causing a nuisance due to their mental health status, and ask that person if they want assistance of some kind. If the person says no, there is absolutely nothing the social worker can do about it. If that person wants to defecate near the bus stop, he's going to do it, and a social worker can't stop that. The police could then arrest for disorderly conduct or trespassing. But when that happens, it disproportionately impacts black people and other people of color.

And so police are getting mixed messages. Don't let your arrest stats be disproportionate by race. But please address these nuisance issues.

The solution has to be somewhere higher up the line than police and social workers on the street. It has to deal with comprehensive, accessible mental health and substance use treatment, as well as housing options. And they all cost tons of money. I was hoping Obamacare would help, but the failure by congress to fund risk corridors has made it shaky at best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm black.

I grew up in a community where black respectability is strong. The elders simply will not tolerate wayward behavior in kids. Those kids grow up to be educated, productive members of society. They have children that are also well-parented. And so on.

Living in DC (trendy, gentrifying neighborhood) has been an adjustment, to put it mildly. I finally understand what it's like to feel outright disgust about my own skinfolk. The absolute trash behavior that gets passed off as "culture" here is just ... I can't even.

I woke up this morning to discarded fast food packaging and several used condoms in front of my house. Again.

I want the city government and police to treat nuisance crimes as seriously as armed robbery.

I want more policing. I want aggressive behavior profiling. Not to be confused with racial profiling -- behavior profiling. People roaming around looking for an opportunity to commit a crime absolutely behave differently from a couple of friends walking down the street together to get from point A to point B. The latter should be left alone. The former should be stopped and evaluated.

I want a dedicated mental health squad that patrols the streets to deal with people behaving erratically, obviously under the influence of a substance or untreated mental illness. Wrap them up, take them to an institution, treat them on the taxpayer's dollar.

I want the city to hire an army of street cleaners to walk around and pick up garbage. Every neighborhood. Every block. Every day.

DC could be soooo much better than it is, much nicer, much prettier, much higher quality of life for ALL residents. But it will take real political will to eliminate the cancer growing deep here.

I agree with most of this! But in practice, social workers go up to someone causing a nuisance due to their mental health status, and ask that person if they want assistance of some kind. If the person says no, there is absolutely nothing the social worker can do about it. If that person wants to defecate near the bus stop, he's going to do it, and a social worker can't stop that. The police could then arrest for disorderly conduct or trespassing. But when that happens, it disproportionately impacts black people and other people of color.

And so police are getting mixed messages. Don't let your arrest stats be disproportionate by race. But please address these nuisance issues.

The solution has to be somewhere higher up the line than police and social workers on the street. It has to deal with comprehensive, accessible mental health and substance use treatment, as well as housing options. And they all cost tons of money. I was hoping Obamacare would help, but the failure by congress to fund risk corridors has made it shaky at best.

100%. Our City Council and Mayor could work on this, if they didn't prefer to turn a blind eye/wring their hands.