Shooting outside Nats Park

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There has to be a way to stop crime without resorting to racist policing policies. Our leaders MUST find a way.

I don’t agree with defunding the police but I think changes can certainly be made. I also don’t think the pandemic helped.

Can you be specific? Crime has trended up in DC for the past 4 years.

One of my first jobs was being a teacher in DC. I don’t think being out of in person school for over a year helped kids like my former students stay away from joining gangs, for example.

I think it’s a fact - not my opinion - that crime is up all over the country right now.

Umm.. why are there GANGS for them to join? My kids were not in school out here in McLean and I'm pretty sure there is no gang to be found.

I’m talking about NE and SE DC - not McLean, obviously.

But the existence of gangs is already a failure of DC politicians and law enforcement. So you can't blame something on the pandemic when it's a bigger crime problem

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve lived in DC since ‘94. I haven’t felt this unsafe in a very long time. Daily notices of “I heard gunfire” in nextdoor for the last many months (don’t try and spin it as “firecrackers”). I think the sense of lawlessness stems from a mayor who hasn’t done a thing about rampant theft from porch pirates for more than a year now and also from zero will to do anything about public, open use of drugs. The whole city smells like pot now that it’s “legal.” These “small” crimes lead to real criminals feeling like there is no law enforcement presence and no accountability. Sucks. After 25 years, I’m moving.

“All part of living in a vibrant, diverse city”

“If you can’t handle it, move to somewhere where you’ll be surrounded by other racists like you”


These are the standard refrains that will be trotted out on this thread. I’ve seen them over and over.

I see these on my Facebook group pages for Hill East and Navy Yard. Any rebuttal is met with knee jerk claims of racism or being unsympathetic to the plight of the downtrodden. Hi, I have little kids. I don’t want them to get hurt. I don’t want to self flagellate for past wrongs and some sort of cause. It’s not cool ro virtue signal that you’re such a hip city dweller that crime doesn’t phase you and it’s just a part of normal life. It’s nuts.9

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know the movie Minority Report was supposed to be a dystopian cautionary tale, but dang if I don't wish we had a security force made up of precogs to stop crimes before they occur.

I supposed second-best solution would be to get the security personnel who screen people boarding El Al flights to train MPD how to patrol effectively by aggressively profiling behavior. The people committing these constant crimes in DC are predominantly from a very particular demographic. Cut them off at the knees, and the crimewave stops.

Unwad your panties, I'm not talking about racial profiling. I'm talking about lifestyle and behavior profiling -- stopping people who obviously are up to no good from carrying out their crimes.

Yes, you are.

Your little terse response adds nothing to this conversation. What’s your solution to this and where it’s obviously coming from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another Saturday Night in Bowserville. This is unreal - the first time I’ve ever felt remotely unsafe living here and it’s been decades.

If it has been decades, then you should remember the carjackings of the late 80's/early 90's.

Carjackings and shooting are back in D.C. vogue, unabashedly.

Nats Park handled this HORRIBLY. People laid on the ground, ducking for cover, for seemingly forever. They made sure to secure the players first, and NO ONE knew what was really happening. Fans were running toward the dugout for cover.

DISGRACEFUL Nats - you can do better with minimal effort.

Awful. No one should go to a baseball game in the Nation's Capitol and experience this BS.

The Nats also handled the tornado horrible. Complete negligence. They waited until the last out in the 5th inning to make it a complete game. Then about 30 seconds later they told everyone to run for their lives. They knew that storm was coming 20 minutes before it hit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There has to be a way to stop crime without resorting to racist policing policies. Our leaders MUST find a way.

I don’t agree with defunding the police but I think changes can certainly be made. I also don’t think the pandemic helped.

Can you be specific? Crime has trended up in DC for the past 4 years.

One of my first jobs was being a teacher in DC. I don’t think being out of in person school for over a year helped kids like my former students stay away from joining gangs, for example.

I think it’s a fact - not my opinion - that crime is up all over the country right now.

Umm.. why are there GANGS for them to join? My kids were not in school out here in McLean and I'm pretty sure there is no gang to be found.

I’m talking about NE and SE DC - not McLean, obviously.

But the existence of gangs is already a failure of DC politicians and law enforcement. So you can't blame something on the pandemic when it's a bigger crime problem

I think I can say i think it exacerbated the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another Saturday Night in Bowserville. This is unreal - the first time I’ve ever felt remotely unsafe living here and it’s been decades.

If it has been decades, then you should remember the carjackings of the late 80's/early 90's.

Carjackings and shooting are back in D.C. vogue, unabashedly.

Nats Park handled this HORRIBLY. People laid on the ground, ducking for cover, for seemingly forever. They made sure to secure the players first, and NO ONE knew what was really happening. Fans were running toward the dugout for cover.

DISGRACEFUL Nats - you can do better with minimal effort.

Awful. No one should go to a baseball game in the Nation's Capitol and experience this BS.

The Nats also handled the tornado horrible. Complete negligence. They waited until the last out in the 5th inning to make it a complete game. Then about 30 seconds later they told everyone to run for their lives. They knew that storm was coming 20 minutes before it hit.

I’ve been to two games this season - last night & the tornado one! Though for whatever reason don’t blame Nats park for either one. That said not sure when I want to go back!

[Anonymous]

Re: the tornado / everyone was getting tornado warnings warnings on the phone. You didn’t need to wait for the game to be called & for the Nats to tell you to leave.

[Anonymous]

Unpopular but verifiable statistic:

Crime rise is DC corresponds to the semi legalization of marijuana.

Correlation does not equal causation, but the City Council really does need to take a long and hard look at the weird mish mash of drug policy we exist in now. Most DC residents simply think pot is legal. And because DC Police have been told not to arrest anybody for it, the laws on the book are meaningless anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was at the game. I thought Nats park did pretty well with making announcements to stay in the stadium etc.

But geeze talk about a rise in crime.

For people who hit the deck - quite literally, it seemed an eternity. People were screaming and running in all directions - don't know what stadium you were at.....

Staying where you were and ducking down was the right thing to do. Until the police tell them it is safe for people to exit and which exits to use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another Saturday Night in Bowserville. This is unreal - the first time I’ve ever felt remotely unsafe living here and it’s been decades.

If it has been decades, then you should remember the carjackings of the late 80's/early 90's.

Carjackings and shooting are back in D.C. vogue, unabashedly.

Nats Park handled this HORRIBLY. People laid on the ground, ducking for cover, for seemingly forever. They made sure to secure the players first, and NO ONE knew what was really happening. Fans were running toward the dugout for cover.

DISGRACEFUL Nats - you can do better with minimal effort.

Awful. No one should go to a baseball game in the Nation's Capitol and experience this BS.

who would? it sucks on a good day.

The Nats also handled the tornado horrible. Complete negligence. They waited until the last out in the 5th inning to make it a complete game. Then about 30 seconds later they told everyone to run for their lives. They knew that storm was coming 20 minutes before it hit.

I’ve been to two games this season - last night & the tornado one! Though for whatever reason don’t blame Nats park for either one. That said not sure when I want to go back!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was at the game. I thought Nats park did pretty well with making announcements to stay in the stadium etc.

But geeze talk about a rise in crime.

For people who hit the deck - quite literally, it seemed an eternity. People were screaming and running in all directions - don't know what stadium you were at.....

I was on the third base side. I got up for a snack, was walking up the ramp to go back to my seats, heard the shots that sounded outside, saw a few people looking over the side and went over to investigate and saw someone on the ground. Saw a Nats worker there too on a walkie talkie reporting & talking to someone & I said are you calling for help? And he pointed down & said cops are already there and I saw cop car & then went back to my seats to tell my friends what happened. I was surprised to see everyone ducking for cover when I got there. I told my friends - it is outside and I didn’t think we should leave. It was scary because they were all thinking it was inside though and there was a second round of shots then that sounded loud & like it could have been inside.

+1

This is exactly why after you secure the perimeter, the immediate next thing you should do is instruct the tens of thousands (!!!!!) of fans who were at their mercy. But they didn't. Instead, they wooshed the players to a safe place, then as an afterthought, minutes later, (which seem like an eternity when you are on the ground, literally ducking for cover, after sections on either side of you are screaming and fleeing, BTW) - saying to stay inside. But, hey PR comes first.

WTAF?

They gave information as soon as they had it. They were begging people to stay inside because panicked people were running out. If you were ducking for cover inside you were safe.

[Anonymous]

I am really stunned that so many people ran into the dugout and remained there even when it was apparent they would not have access to the tunnel and could go no further.

Please remember the Congressional Baseball Shooting in Alexandria from 2017. In that incident, the baseball field was surrounded by a chain link fence that had been locked, so the shooter did not have access to the field and was shooting through the fence. Everyone retreated for the dugouts, so the shooter headed in that direction. The female Capitol police offer that got shot stated that she knew if the shooter was able to make it to the position where he could see and shot into the dugout, that it would be a massacre, like shooting fish in a barrel and all of them would die. So she did whatever she could do to stop him before he got there.

The congressional baseball players didn't have much choice because the fence was locked, but the Nats fans did. In these situations you definitely go into panic/ flight/fight mode (I have been in a shooting before), but try to remember if the first place can't get you to an exit, keep going if you can.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_baseball_shooting

[Anonymous]

Why in the world did the WaPo bury this story in the sports section today?? I was expecting to see it at the top of the front page.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why in the world did the WaPo bury this story in the sports section today?? I was expecting to see it at the top of the front page.

Same reason the town newspaper guy from “Jaws” put the story about the shark attack on the back page!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why in the world did the WaPo bury this story in the sports section today?? I was expecting to see it at the top of the front page.

Print newspapers have deadlines and it was a night game. It’s currently the fourth story on the app (which serves a national audience).