July 30, 2007
Morning Roundup: Good Intentions Edition
Good morning, Washington. We hope you had a relaxing weekend, and weren't one of the people inconvenienced by the brief closing of a number of Metro stations on Sunday. The story goes that a contractor mistakenly spread commercial-grade rat poisoning in the middle of the day around several stations in D.C. and Maryland. When dozens of birds started dropping dead at the Greenbelt, Anacostia, Naylor Road and Branch Avenue stations on the Green line and the Rhode Island Avenue-Brentwood and Takoma stations on the Red line, an investigation quickly began that included the FBI and local hazardous-materials crews. All of the affected stations were reopened relatively quickly.
'All Hands On Deck' Didn't Prevent Shootings: In the Post we find out that seven people, including four adults and three children, were shot in Northeast even while the MPD had all of their officers on duty during their second 'All Hands on Deck' weekend. Residents at the Edgewood Terrace complex said they had been aware of an argument between some young men living there and another group. Luckily, none of the victims sustained life-threatening injuries.
West Nile Infections Way Down in Region While West Nile virus has been scaring the crap out of the Washington region for at least five years, ever since we had a summer with about 100 human cases and 11 deaths. But now the disease has receded significantly here since then, even as it remains elsewhere in the United States. Only one human case has been reported this summer, in Virginia. Health experts credit the decrease to a well-coordinated response from local agencies that included raising public awareness about prevention and applying larvicide to key locations. Officials continue to ask residents to take precautions like wearing insect repellent when outside and removing standing water from around homes
Briefly Noted: Hit and run suspected in death of 84-year-old woman ... Homes evacuated over carbon monoxide ... Construction hurting bottom line on Restaurant Row.
Photo by krisetya
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The substance at the Metro stations was actually poison for pigeon abatement... seems like that upsets people more for some reason. For most of the day, none of the authorities had any idea what the substance actually was.
I wonder if that rat poisoning is why I've seen a number of dead birds around the Dupont Circle area on my way to work.
It's not rat poison. The post story sort of dances around the issue but basically metro is admitting that in the middle of the night they poison pigeons and then clean up the dead carcasses before day break so no one is the wiser.
You'd figure Metro would just trap the pidgeons and sell them to restaurants. Charge $28 a plate for "Cruelty-free, free-tunnel transit squab with rat poison coulis in a bum urine reduction" and the problem fixes itself.
The Post story says the Takoma station was closed for nearly four hours. That's not reopening relatively quickly in my book.
So the only problem with this haphazard scattering of poison is that it was done at the wrong time of day? I don't understand how you can poison pigeons in the middle of the night anyway. Aren't they asleep?
And if they're going to be poisoning pigeons, maybe it would be worthwhile expending some effort to get idiots to stop feeding them. It's insane at Cleveland Park, with people dumping bread and seed to produce a continuous pigeon party, followed by the nightly rat party to clean up what's left (see photos).
Flying rats....I also cringe whenever I see people throwing bread at those things.
#5 I am so with you.
Pigeons are nothing but rats with wings, and squirrels are merely cute rats.
There should be penalties for feeding any of them.
Was I out of it or did it not really seem like an "all hands on deck" weekend? I didn't notice a large increase in the police prescence in the 3rd district....
The extra police presence was definitely noticeable in the 1st district, especially in psa 103, 106 and 107. at one point on friday night there appeared to be a cop on almost every other block in that area
telling that all but one of the comments are about dead birds instead of the folks in "little beruit?"
Guest 10: What do you want to say about the shooting? A group of degenerate thugs went looking to shoot another group of degenerate thugs. Couldn't find who they were looking for and just decided to shoot up whoever was outside the building. (wouldn't want to waste a trip).
None of the neighbors saw anything (wink, wink), so the police have few leads. Im sure there will be a teddy bear memorial around some tree for a few weeks (eyes rolling), fenty will make an appearance on the scene and promise better police protection (yea right), and then we will repeat this cycle over again a few months down the road.
This is the same old DC crime story involving people who celebrate the ghetto and thug lifestyle (ho hum) and despite our illustrious gun ban are seemingly armed to the teeth (take that 2nd amendment). Just last week the post lamented how 600+ juvenile offenders are being unfairly detained in dc jail (cry me a river). Can't have it both ways lock em up or let them run loose and wild.
Metro was having a seriously bad day. Mass Ave northbound was shut down just north of Sheridan Circle around 9:45 a.m. I was on the N4, and chose to get off the bus and walk to the Dupont station to get to work (half an hour late). No one could provide our driver with information on what happened or what to do about it. In the meantime, our driver couldn't do anything (take a different route for example) until his supervisor arrived.
As a regular bus rider, I have come to accept that the buses do not run on time, or at all. It's my Zen meditation for the day. I have come to accept that the buses may or may not have AC, or heat. I ride them because a) it's cheap, and b) it gets me where I need to go in less time than the trains. However, in a city where "Emergency Situations" are run-of-the-mill, shouldn't Metro have some sort of contingency plans so that buses can keep going as needed? I mean, for all I know, Dick Cheney may have decided to run down the street naked and they decided to shut it down to prevent a media swarm.
But really--shouldn't there be some way of notifying bus drivers? Is this really so hard? It's both a security issue and a common courtesy issue.
Sigh. I know nothing will come of my rant... I was born here. I just think that more people would make use of public transit if it actually did its job.
It's telling that guest 10 didn't say anything about the 84-year-old hit-and-run victim. Presumably guest 10 doesn't care about her or her family.
While I'm not quite as cynical as #11 about the shooting at Edgewood Terrace, I am certainly as skeptical about no one coming forward as witnesses to the crime.
The whole "stop snitching" mentality in crime-ridden areas is ultimately a death sentence for the entire neighborhood. Very depressing that people respect criminality more than the law.
That said, until the cops can get control of the streets and ensure that witnesses won't be tomorrow's murder victims, I can empathize with the fear that supports keeping quiet.
In Egypt and other parts of the world, pigeon meat is standard dinner fare, if not a delicacy in some restaurants. Eat up! (I did, yum.)
Several of my friends who live in Edgewood Terrace witnessed the shooting. They have told police everything they know--the issue is not always that people are afraid of snitching--sometimes when a group of kids are being shot at the last thing on your mind is trying to memorize the face of the shooter, you are more concerned about protecting the kids whose lives are endangered.
It really is a shame, a few years ago Edgewood Terrace was a great affordable housing complex with diversity of residents and a strong community spirit. Now? The units are still really nice, but it appears the security situation is headed in the wrong direction. All of my friends who live there are trying to move, but it's not easy when you've got a section 8 voucher.
The other day I saw a little kid (no more than 8 years old) wearing one of those despicable "stop snitching" tee shirts. Unbelievable.
#11- LOL
#s 14&16-
'Cause going quietly always makes things better?
My friends and I have been contemplating making some T-shirts with a green light symbol that says `Start Snitching.' We will even be so bold to spell the word snitching correctly. The stop `snitchin' phenomenon is just downright ludicrous and every time I see someone with one of those `stop snitchin' shirts, I make a point of audibly laughing as I pass them. just sheer ignorance.
I'm just waiting for the irony when some guy with a `stop snitchin' shirt shows up on the local news crying about his friend who was shot and complaining to the camera about how the po-lice don't do nothing bout the violence.
Number 16 here. I fail to see how my comment promotes "going quietly." I mentioned that my friends were witnesses, did speak to the police, but did not have much information about the shooters. BECAUSE THEY WERE MORE CONCERNED ABOUT THE THREE YEAR OLDS WHO WERE GETTING SHOT! Learn to read why don't you.
#14 here.
Thanks, #16, for pointing out that those directly affected by the shooting probably didn't see who was doing it. However, I bet there are folks at Edgewood who do know something about what went down, and they have clammed up.
In an ideal world the DA could rely on the cops to figure out who knew about the shooting conspiracy (since there were multiple gunmen, it was a conspiracy) and then prosecute not only the shooters, but also the others who didn't come forward, as accessories to the crime.
That's the only way I can see to stop the "stop snichin" cancer.
#16 wrote: "All of my friends who live there are trying to move, but it's not easy when you've got a section 8 voucher."
That's how.
-#18
#18 again-
Word gets around. It only takes a little while for people to know who did it. #14 & #11, no real offense intended. I've got my own three year old to protect. But I do step up.
So people who have section 8 vouchers should do what? It's not like these people are unemployed, but the type of jobs available for illiterate refugees aren't all that high paying. Should they keep their kids in a place where three year olds get shot, because it means they're standing up to the criminals? I honestly don't understand what you're getting at.
#18 Again-
Standing up to criminals isn't how I'd put it. I'd frame it as defending their family, home, and neighborhood. All of these institutions thrive when people *work in common cause* to defend them, and they wither and fail when enough people individually decide to up and leave. That's just how it is.
It's their call, obviously. It really breaks my heart everytime when, in my neighborhood Hispanics leave due to black on Hispanic racial violence, or good and kind single black mothers on the straight and narrow leave out of fear for their kids safety and development. And, as a parent, I completely understand why they up and leave, really.
But I can't see how I'm framing the choices they make wrongly when I term it "leaving quietly".