Although he’s yet to be confirmed as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin has hinted at priorities that, for the most part, align with that of President Donald J. Trump, whose focus in recent weeks has been on ridding D.C. of violent crime and homeless encampments.
Martin shared his goals at the end of a Women’s History Month-themed meeting that the Anacostia Coordinating Council (ACC) held at Martha’s Table at the Commons in Southeast. After former D.C. Councilmembers Yvette Alexander, Eydie Whittington, and Sandra Allen lit up the room with their trips down memory lane, Martin revealed a plan he touted as “Make D.C. Safe Again.”
“We decided we would charge more gun crimes in federal district court,” Martin told more than 100 Ward 7 and Ward 8 residents on the afternoon of March 25. “In just about two-and-a-half weeks, we’ve charged 18 new cases in federal district court… We’re going to get them off the streets and we’re going to try to make the streets safer.”
Martin then spoke about youth criminal activity, which he said he plans to attack just as vigorously.
“Frankly, when I look at the juvenile problem closely, it looks like our juveniles are being manipulated by a lot of parts of the system,” Martin said, later criticizing Attorney General Brian Schwalb for his approach to youth crime. “Sometimes it’s their people in the community. Sometimes it’s bad breaks that they have in our school systems, but the fact is that we have a problem and we have to be real about that.”
In January, U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi tapped Martin as interim U.S. attorney for the District, despite his lack of prosecutorial experience. He’s since met with Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith, shadowed police officers on patrols throughout the District, and made visits to famous landmarks, including Frederick Douglass’ house in Anacostia.
Martin, an attorney, currently serves as president of a conservative advocacy group named after prominent anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly. His resume includes a short stint as chief of staff for then-Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt in the mid 2000s and an unsuccessful bid for Missouri’s attorney general seat in 2012. His March 25 visit as interim U.S. attorney general to Martha’s Table at the Commons followed an appearance at Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Seventh District Headquarters shortly after entering his role.
Martin reportedly will appear before members of MPD’s Citizens Advisory Committee at MPD Third District Headquarters.
In his remarks on Tuesday, Martin delved into other goals, including: staffing his office, filling federal judge vacancies that’ve spurred a backlog of court cases, and stopping the trafficking of illegal guns from the Baltimore and southern states.
“The ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) assures me… that they can help us go back up the chain and try to cut the supply of guns, but that’s a challenge,” Martin told community members. “When you talk to the ATF, they do tell you it’s harder than you think, because what you have is a lot of mules…and then when you arrest them for having the guns, they’re not the ones that are the problem.”
Washingtonians React to Martin’s Words, Plan
The reception from the audience left much to be desired.
Robert Vinson Brannum, a D.C. native with experience as an advisory neighborhood commissioner and CAC member, didn’t mince words as he vehemently criticized Martin, and even facilitators of the March 25 meeting who he said kept him from expressing his thoughts on the microphone.
“This was the biggest dog and pony show,” said Brannum, 72. “He works for the biggest criminal in the world, and he comes here to tell us about crime.”
Later, while speaking to The Informer, Vinson Brannum questioned how Martin, with no intimate knowledge of local affairs, can carry out his job duties to the benefit of District residents.
“How can he go about…making statements about crime in the city when crime in Missouri is just as bad if not worse,” Vinson Brannum said as he paid homage to MPD Chief Smith, now in her second year on the job. “Crime under Pam Smith has gone down… He’s using bogus statistics to promote a false ideology.”
Others in attendance at ACC meeting were: Martha’s Table President & CEO Tiffany Williams; Cora Masters Barry, D.C.’s former first lady; Ronald Moten of Check-It Enterprises and the Go-Go Museum & Cafe; Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Salim Adofo; Ward 8 D.C. Council candidate Jennifer Galencia Muhammad, and Nee Nee Taylor and Qiana Johnson of Harriet’s Wildest Dreams.
At times, those who gathered on the second floor of Martha’s Table at the Commons made references to the 1980s and 1990s, a period of mass incarceration, and the dispersal of Disrict residents across the federal prison system. Martin also found critics in the U.S. Shadow Senator Ankit Jain and Masters Barry, each of whom, respectively, mentioned the firing of employees in the U.S attorney’s office and Martin’s lack of acknowledgement of progress made under Smith.
Shortly after the smoke cleared from the arguing and interruptions, Ward 8 resident Brenda Jones said Martin didn’t satisfy her thirst for information.
“He didn’t say anything that people wanted to hear,” Jones told The Informer. “What he should have done is made a few remarks and listened to what the people had to say.”
Lamont Mitchell, ACC chair, said Martin’s appearance at Martha’s table allowed community members to interact with an important figure in the public safety ecosystem.
“He is the chief law enforcement officer in the city, and we have to listen to what he has to say,”Mitchell told The Informer. “He is here, and we have to deal with him.”
During the latter part of Martin’s meeting with community members, Darrell Gaston, Ward 8 resident and restaurateur, asked the interim U.S. attorney what diversion programs, if any, would he implement for youth who come into contact with the justice system, merely as a result of living in their community and hanging around the wrong people.
Gaston, a vocal supporter of punitive measures for repeatedly violent offenders, said it remains to be seen whether Martin will overly rely on prosecution to meet his public safety goals.
He said that should never be the case.
“Those that are tremendously out here robbing, killing, terrorizing the community, they deserve to get locked up,” Gaston said. “But my fear is that there are going to be a good number of people who look like me…that are going to get caught up hanging in the wrong neighborhood and become the bystander to whatever agenda that the attorney general has to make D.C. safe again.”
