D.C. mayor’s policing plan receives community pushback

By Askia Muhammad -Senior Editor- | Last updated: Sep 15, 2015 - 6:22:43 PM

Mayor Muriel Bowser

WASHINGTON - Despite her claims that she wanted to “make ‘Black Lives Matter’ more than just a hash tag,” dozens of Washingtonians rejected and interrupted D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Aug. 27, when she introduced a plan to reduce crime in the nation’s capital, by aggressively increasing police powers, and targeting Black youth.

The boos began as soon as the mayor said her plan was to put more police on the streets in neighborhoods affected by violent crime, as dozens of protesters affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement heckled and interrupted the address for 18 minutes.

Shouting “Jobs, not jails!” and “More police is not the answer!” the protesters, led by former Statehood-Green Party D.C. Council candidate Eugene Puryear accused the mayor of failing to address the root causes of violence and advocating for policies that would do more harm than good.

“I think she doesn’t really care,” Mr. Puryear said according to published reports. “From the beginning, the mayor has been completely aloof from the broader conversation that the Black Lives Matter movement is driving. At the end of the day, tougher penalties and more cops, which have only been proven to have a negative effect, are something that she’s going to continue to support.”

There had been 103 slayings in the District of Columbia when the mayor made the announcement, a 43 percent increase over the same point last year. At Final Call press time, that total had risen to 109, four more than the entire total in 2014. Mayor Bowser and Police Commissioner Cathy Lanier insist that many community members have been asking for more police officers on the streets.

Among the mayor’s legislative goals is to authorize warrantless searches of violent offenders released on parole or probation to look for illegal guns. Protesters argued those searches would put innocent people at risk, civil liberties advocates argue the tactics are illegal.

“The part that involves the police is constitutionally questionable,” attorney Johnny Barnes, former director of the D.C., Maryland and Virginia ACLU told Roach Brown on the “Crossroads” radio program on WPFW-FM.

“The Fourth Amendment prohibits (police) from coming into your home, approaching your person, and seizing your goods and even seizing your person. The courts have said you cannot have suspicion less searches of individuals. It strikes me that by involving law enforcement in this new plan, the mayor is on very thin ice when it comes to the Fourth Amendment.

“And of course, the fact that it focuses on suppression, rather than intervention, it focuses on knocking heads and putting people in jail rather than finding jobs and hope and opportunity and training, makes the plan ill-advised at this juncture,” Mr. Barnes continued.

Mayor Bowser’s plan—as do similar plans in other jurisdictions around the country, seek to use what experts call the “pain, grief, narratives” which are put forth around the notion of “what victims want,” according to Seema Sadananan, Criminal Justice Director of the D.C. ACLU, also speaking on Mr. Brown’s “Crossroads” radio program.

The idea is to position a “line” between criminals and victims she said. But the community most likely to be victims of violence is young Black men, the same community that is vulnerable to disproportionate policing and incarceration, which is unable to gain housing and employment because they are “over criminalized.”

Crime should be seen as a public health issue, Ms. Sadananan said. Police need a positive relationship with the communities they serve. They need to build trust, by treating community members with dignity. Stripping away the rights of people is problematic, and “pitting violent people against the rest of society is counter-factual,” she insists.

Boxer Cornell Hines was victorious at the 8th annual cookout and amateur boxing matches held by Cease Fire Don’t Smoke the Brothers and Sisters and ex offender groups, without incident, without arrests, and without any police present on Aug. 29. Photo: Askia Muhammad

Two days later, thousands of Washingtonians participated in the largest ex-offender-sponsored event on the East Coast, sponsored by Cease Fire Don’t Smoke the Brothers and Sisters and the Madness Connection T-Shirt company. It was the eighth annual cookout and amateur boxing matches. The only police officer conspicuously in attendance was a deputy commander who helped serve food, but there were no incidents and no arrests.

The cookout was an example of the type of activity that communities desire, according to one D.C. leader. “This is a great day, once again with Cease Fire Don’t Smoke the Brothers and the Sisters. They’ve brought out all these people together. It’s been nice. It’s been friendly. It’s been a lot of inter-action,” D.C. Councilmember Vincent Orange told The Final Call.

“It just shows you if you put money into the community, you get people that have gone through the tough times and have returned, and work with them, then things turn out a lot like today. Back when we had 88 murders (in the District), back in 2012, we’ve got to look to see what was going on then, and what has changed.

“The only thing I can see that has changed is that we are not engaging the community like we did back then. It’s got to be all of us together. It just can’t be a one-sided thing,” Council member Orange said.

The Final Call