For many District residents, most violent crime leads back to the crowds of people who loiter in front of methadone clinics, liquor stores and businesses along major corridors in the city’s most blighted communities.
Such a sight has compelled some people, like Anthony Muhammad, to espouse his support for the reinstatement of an anti-loitering law that allows D.C. police to engage those who stand around aimlessly in the areas of the District most prone to violent crime.
Muhammad, a Ward 8 resident and former advisory neighborhood commissioner, recently attended D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto’s Ward 8 public safety walk. He told The Informer he was present out of an “obligation,” to hold the D.C. Council liable for what he described as its neglect of his community.
“I see lawn chairs in front of stores on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Good Hope Road, and 21st Street. These [are places] where shooting takes place,” Muhammad said as he expressed skepticism about the D.C. Council’s willingness to tackle violent crime in Ward 8.
“The taxes in Ward 8 are lower [than anywhere in the city] and more social services are coming here,” Muhammad said. “That’s the money that should be used to clean up the streets. That’s the unspoken argument in [the D.C. Council] offices.”
Bowser Ups the Ante in New Legislation
On Monday, Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced the introduction of the Addressing Crime Trends (ACT) Now Act at the Metropolitan Police Department’s Fourth District Station, the site of protests in the aftermath of Karon Hylton-Brown’s police-involved murder.
Bowser encouraged the D.C. Council to move this legislation, along with the Safer, Stronger Amendment Act, which she introduced earlier this year.
She told The Informer that she has the seven council votes needed to pass ACT Now, but will aim for unanimous support. Council member Kenyan McDuffie (I-At large) said he would speak on the bill once he read it in its entirety. Council members Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) and Anita Bonds (D-At large) expressed the need for collaboration between the mayor, the council and other offices to address crime.
If passed, the ACT Now legislation reinstates an anti-loitering law that allows the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to declare drug-free zones for 120 hours to prohibit the purchase, sale and use of illegal drugs. It also creates criminal penalties for organized retail theft and, once again, makes it illegal to wear a mask when committing criminal acts, intimidating people and causing fear.
Bowser, a critic of the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Amendment Act, also included provisions in the legislation that create a distinction between a serious use of force by a police officer and the officer’s incidental contact with a person’s neck during an encounter.
Under the legislation, officers would also be allowed to review born-worn camera footage before writing their initial police report.
A Bowser administration official told The Informer that nearly 40 MPD officers are currently under investigation for situations where their incidental touching of suspects was classified as serious use of force. They credited the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Amendment Act with narrowing the latitude that police officers have to carry out their jobs.
Meanwhile, the clarification around vehicular pursuits that the D.C. Council included in emergency legislation earlier this year would also be made permanent under ACT Now, all while limitations are imposed on what information about officer discipline will be posted.
In 2014, the D.C. Council repealed the Anti-Loitering/Drug-Free Zone Act of 1996, through which the MPD chief, for up to 120 hours, could designate zones where two or more people would be prohibited from congregating and participating in the drug trade. Elements of that law were in the Omnibus Public Safety Emergency Amendment Act, which also increased drug-free zones and enhanced penalties for weapons possession and gang activity.
A Bowser administration official speaking on background said that evolution of the drug trade, as seen in the digital exchange of currency, among other factors, has compelled the need for an anti-loitering law that makes it easier for police officers to disturb drug activity.
Per the anti-loitering law, the police chief would inform the council chairperson and the D.C. Council before it designates 1,000 square feet of space as a drug-free zone. Stipulations that the police chief would consider include: arrest for the possession and distribution of drugs over a six-month period, police reports for violent crime in that zone, the number of homicides committed, verifiable evidence that shows illegal drugs being sold and distributed in public space in the drug-free zone.
Bowser, who voted in support of the Repeal of Prostitution-Free Zones and Drug-Free Zones Amendment Act as Ward 4 council member, said that current circumstances dictate the need for an anti-loitering law.
“We want to blunt a trend that we see in open-air drug dealing that we… don’t want to proliferate,” Bowser said. “We think that we want the police to have the tools. The chief will use the tools available to the officers and prioritize it for public safety.”
Pinto Faces Ward 8 Residents During Public Safety Walk
Earlier this year, Lindsey Appiah, deputy mayor for public safety and justice, joined Dr. Barbara Bazron, director of the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health, at a meeting conducted by Advisory Neighborhood Commission 8A, which includes Good Hope Road in Downtown Anacostia.
By that time, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety had been dispatching its Violent Crime Response team to Good Hope Road throughout most of the year.
During the ANC 8A meeting, Appiah said that she plans to present a long-term interagency response to substance use along Good Hope in December. On Monday, an executive member of the Bowser administration said that, out of deference to residents who are frustrated with the proliferation of plans that haven’t seemed to work, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice would examine what has been done.
On Oct. 18, dozens of people converged on the corner of 16th Street and Good Hope Road in Southeast for Pinto’s safety walk, one of eight that she conducted across the District within the span of a week.
Pinto announced the walks a couple days after Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Jamila White took to social media and criticized the council member’s office for declining to meet with community members who live in Downtown Anacostia, the jurisdiction that Commissioner White represents.
In emails secured by The Informer, Pinto’s office mentioned the upcoming safety walks and cited scheduling conflicts as the reason why the council member, chair of the D.C. Council Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, couldn’t meet with Advisory Neighborhood Commission 8A.
On the day of the safety walk, Pinto, along with staffers representing D.C. Council members Trayon White (D-Ward 8) and Anita Bonds (D-At large) and the Mayor’s Office of Community Relations and Services, took a stroll with Ward 8 residents, D.C. police officers, D.C. court employees, and other public safety staffers along Good Hope Road, between 16th Street and 13th Street Southeast.
Along the way, Pinto promoted the SECURE DC Plan, a compilation of bills that she’s introducing to increase accountability measures and better coordinate government response to crime.
Council member White didn’t attend the public safety walk because he was hosting a public roundtable about Sam Abed, acting director of D.C. Department of Youth and Rehabilitative Services and Thennie Freeman, director of D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation.
The crowd, estimated to be the largest of any that attended Pinto’s public safety walks this fall, first stopped at a park where substance users are known to congregate. They later engaged Pinto in conversation in front of a methadone clinic that has caught residents’ ire over the last few years for the legions of people that it attracts in the early morning hours.
The walk ended on the corner of 13th Street and Good Hope Road SE in front of DCity Smokehouse. At each point, residents pressed Pinto, not only about the influx of loitering, but the lack of an interagency plan to address behavioral health issues along Good Hope Road.
Commissioner White asked what resources, if any, were being dedicated to what had been designated as the District’s most violent blocks.
Residents also asked Pinto about why the D.C. Council didn’t secure funds to move the methadone clinic. Discussions during the walk also focused on how to better hold parents accountable and the toll that violent crime took on Black business owners. Throughout the session, Pinto alluded at emergency legislation she successfully shepherded through the council earlier this year and elements of the SECURE DC Plan in response to residents’ concerns.
Major points of criticism that fueled some skepticism around the walk were Pinto’s choice for the location and the route she took along Good Hope Road. Residents criticized Pinto for not walking along 16th Street, where people are known to loiter throughout the day.
Freddie Winston, a business owner of 30 years who specializes in construction and solid waste management, said that loitering and marijuana decriminalization is just the tip of the iceberg. He hinted at housing insecurity as the elephant in the room amid all the conversation about violent crime.
Winston, reflecting on a contract he lost with the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development, said the government’s negligence in supporting Black-owned businesses has exacerbated violent crime east of the Anacostia River. That’s why he spent much of his time during the walk asking Pinto how the District could better support businesses that are attempting to help Ward 8 residents become economically secure.
“How would you enforce a loitering law when people will just walk away? They just come back when police leave or go to the next block,” said Winston, founder of F&L Construction on Good Hope Road. “I want the opportunity to give people jobs and keep them working.”
D.C. Council Members Weigh in on Loitering Question
A staff member in D.C. Council Chairperson Phil Mendelson (D) questioned the constitutionality of anti-loitering laws, citing former D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan who expressed his apprehension about D.C. Council legislation in 2012 expanding and making anti-prostitution zones permanent.
A Bowser administration official said that, after conferring with legal experts and examining the Sentencing Project’s stance on the matter, the D.C. anti-loitering law meets the threshold for constitutionality.
At the end of her Ward 8 public safety walk on Oct. 17, Pinto said that she felt residents’ frustration about recurring behavior and the lack of accountability for perpetrators of crime. She also mentioned the lack of resources, and pledged to guide the District agencies under her purview to meet residents’ needs.
In regard to loitering, Pinto explored the issue in the context of residents, particularly young people, looking for safe public spaces.
“We need to be thoughtful about making sure people have places to go. It’s important for all of us, especially young people, to have places to recreate safely,” Pinto said.
“Where there are hot spots, we have to express ways to make sure law enforcement can intervene and disrupt,” she added. “[It’s about] focusing on areas of illegal activity but not areas where people are looking for a spot [to spend time]. We will be exploring avenues for additional resources to get people to spaces and have a safe place to hang out.”
Being in the Hood for Forty Years I’ve watched alot of public officials afraid to walk. Afraid to walk in the neighborhoods with or without Police.