Safety vs. Civil Rights

Memorial Day weekend there were 9 shootings in Washington, DC’s “Trinidad” neighborhood of the Northeast quadrant of the city in the 5th District. The police solution to the problem was to cordon off the neighborhood with police barricades this last weekend. The Washington Post explains;

D.C. police stepped up efforts last night to curb violence in the hard-pressed Trinidad neighborhood of Northeast Washington, choking off access to several streets there to force drivers to pass through the new anti-crime checkpoint, Chief Cathy L. Lanier said.

The Montello Avenue checkpoint, where police demanded that motorists account for their presence in the neighborhood, was set up Saturday night for the first time, but some drivers circumvented it by using nearby streets to enter Trinidad, Lanier said.

She said police were “going to be narrowing the funnel a little bit” by guiding the flow of traffic toward Montello Avenue. However, it appeared that the number of officers assigned last night was insufficient to fully implement the plan, and the strategy took on many aspects of a work in progress.

“We’re looking at different ways to control traffic patterns,” Cmdr. Melvin Scott said.

The police questioned people for their purpose of being in the neighborhood and turned back those who couldn’t verify their reason for entering the neighborhood;

On Saturday, those who told police that they were going to visit a relative were turned away if they did not provide the relative’s phone number so officers could verify their claim, Hughes said.

Leaders at the American Civil Liberties Union, who have criticized Lanier’s effort as heavy-handed, were in Trinidad on Saturday night. They questioned the statistics provided by police and said they estimated that 90 percent of cars were turned away.

“Our analysis is different from theirs,” said Johnny Barnes, executive director of the ACLU’s Washington office. “We think most people were turned away.”

He said it became a joke among his workers when they saw police stop an ice cream truck. It was eventually let through.

So to what extent should we allow the government to go to protect us? Certainly they have the responsibility to control access to our international borders, but controlling travel within our own communities? The District of Columbia has been cavalier about rescinding the Second Amendment for it’s citizens so I guess they figure they can just revoke Fourth Amendment protections, too.

On it’s face, the Metro police have overstepped their bounds, but Trinidad residents have refused to cooperate with the police investigation of the murders as well as countless property crimes in the neighborhood. Yet they demand that the police solve the crimes and prevent further crimes – but no one wants to help.

There were even protesters at the police barricades according to the Post;

About 15 demonstrators decried the checkpoints, saying they violate the residents’ rights. “Trinidad, yes; Baghdad, no!” they yelled. “Don’t turn Trinidad into Baghdad!”

Well, it’s hardly Baghdad, but it’s un-American, nonetheless, on both sides. The police shouldn’t be restricting travel of citizens, but those citizens have a responsibility to police their own neighborhood instead of sitting on their behinds hoping someone else will do something to protect them. This sort of dependency on the government to protect us, without us lifting a finger to help ourselves is what got people killed in the New Orleans hurricane a few years back.

Crossposted at Eagles Up! Talon

Category: Legal, Society