July 19, 2006
Morning Roundup: More of Everything Edition
Gunfire in Loudoun County: The Post is calling a series of shootings aroung Sterling this morning "bizarre", in which unknown suspects fired shots into seven different homes over the course of 30 minutes early this morning. One man was seriously injured, and the entire state of Virginia let out a collective 'D'oh!' after spending yesterday rejoicing in what had appeared to be a decline in gang-related violence.
City Council Embraces Mayor's Crime Plan: Despite strong objections and stern warnings from prominent civil rights groups, the City Council looks as though they will pass the Mayor's emergency crime bill. The Mayor's plan includes pushing the nightly curfew for teens up to 10 p.m. (from midnight) for the next 90 days and installing surveillance cameras in residential communities. D.C. Mayor Anthony "Big Brother" Williams hopes the measures will help curb the wave of murders and robberies the city has experienced over the last month, and a vote on the bill, now expected to pass, is scheduled for 1 p.m. this afternoon. At 1:01 p.m., the ACLU is expected to ask the Mayor to hand in his membership card.
Verizon Overbills D.C. Customers: About 11,000 customers in the Mid-Atlantic region, including several thousand in D.C., have been overbilled by Verizon because of a software error, the company said today. Verizon said it will correct the error on next month's bill. No word yet from the Marie Johns campaign on whether she, if elected mayor, would adopt a similar overcharge-but-give-it-back-eventually policy.
Briefly Noted: The Examiner visits local families affected by the current escalation of violence in the Middle East ... 11-year-old boy riding his bike was hit by a bus yesterday afternoon ... Fire ants appear in coastal Virginia ... Maryland sold winning Mega Millions lotto ticket.
This Day in DCist: We announced the coming of free WiFi to Dupont Circle; gave some free advice to the city's waiters; and wondered if free public pool access was really news.
Photo snapped by epmd and placed in the DCist photostream on Flickr.
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yeah EPMD!
My power went out this morning in Columbia Heights. Does anybody know what happened?
Yeah, mine was out too. They said it would be back on by 9am...anyone know if they fixed it? (I left the house around 8am)
The streets were taped off and the bus driver told me there was a down powerline.
11th between Irving and whatever street comes after that heading south. I forget.
I think the War on Terror should extend to stopping the march of the fire ants.
Re: crime.
These measures are a joke. Police are still in cars. Hell, they had a PARKED police car on every single block of the mall last weekend. It looked like we lived in Baghdad, and undoubtedly deterred criminal activity on the mall that weekend. Will they stay parked there forever though?
How about just putting 6 cops on foot around the mall instead?
I will keep saying it until the Mayor listens - PUT THE POLICE ON FOOT!
Whatever happened to providing OT pay for the police officers? Give these guys some kind of incentive for being out there for us. I agree that patrol needs to be stepped up - even when they haven't declared a crime emergency. Agreed, Bos. That definitely includes foot patrol.
Anyone know why there were nine cop cars outside of a house in Ballston around 7:30 last night? Here's what I saw:
http://www.sournsweet.com/?p=378
A little curious since it was across the street.
Oh my god! Strong Objections and Stern Warnings from the ACLU! Wow lets run and hide! I would be happy to lend the mayor my lighter so he could proactively burn his ACLU card (as long as he doesn’t burn it in a smoke-free workplace).
To quote Ben Franklin:
"Those who would give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety"
Camera's watching my yard? No thanks...if I want a camera to watch what I'll do, I'll install it. This is beyond Orwellian.
Pretty sure the cameras won't be watching yards obviously, but rather public places.
However, in the Wire, they just threw rocks at the camera until it broke. I wouldn't be surprised witht the same results here.
Someone has convinced the mayor that cameras are better for fighting crime (look at spending from DHS grants for example) than actual police work, legal reform, and support for the community.
It seems like a good question - if you suffered through really crappy service from Verizon (like I did), why would you vote for Johns?
The killings are happening in neighborhoods, which is where most yards are. My corner, where many crack dealers are and where my car was shot 7 times in a drive by, is about 5 feet from my yard. It's hard for me to believe that the cameras won't, at times, be trained on private property. If anyone should be screaming for more protection, it's someone like me who lives with violence every day. But, I'd never support cameras owned/operated by the gov't being placed in public places.
JUST GET MORE POLICE AND HAVE THEM WALK THE BEAT!