August 20, 2007
Morning Roundup: An Uneasy Peace Edition
Good morning, Washington. An estimated 10,000 people attended the dedication Sunday of the official memorial for the 32 victims killed at Virginia Tech on April 16. Students at the university, about four hours outside D.C., begin classes for the fall semester today. On the same day as the dedication, about 23 Virginia Tech students living in an off-campus apartment building were taken to hospitals after showing signs of carbon monoxide poisoning. Several of the students who remained in the hospital overnight, at least two in critical condition, were from the Washington area.
D.C. Detectives Trial Begins: Jury selection begins today in the case of two D.C. police detectives accused of persuading witnesses to change their stories in an investigation of the fatal stabbing of Terrance Brown at the old Club U, in the Reeves Center at 14th and U NW. Two witnesses told the detectives the attacker in the murder used a box cutter, but when the forensic report determined a box cutter couldn’t have killed the victim, federal prosecutors say the detectives told the witnesses to alter their testimony to fit the forensic evidence.
Va. Tourism Campaign Used Gang Signs: Virginia’s Tourism Corp. has altered an upcoming marketing campaign after learning that actors in the series of print ads had been unwittingly directed to make hand signs used by a Chicago gang. The ads innocently featured Virginians making a heart-shaped sign, in reference to the famous “Virginia is for Lovers” slogan, by touching together their index fingers and thumbs -- which is commonly used by the Gangster Disciples, a violent street gang from South Side of Chicago.
Briefly Noted: Fire at 9th and Rhode Island NW leaves man critically injured ... Police seek driver in fatal hit-and-run at 16th and Harvard NW ... 'Deep Throat' lawsuit sent to arbitration ... West Elm furniture store opens today in Woodies Building.
This Day in DCist: In 2004 we said goodbye to CNN's Booknotes and WMATA was working on avoiding a fare hike.
Photo by philliefan_99
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Talk about super-hyper sensitive! Who the heck is going to associate a tourism campaign with a Chicago gang, and if they do, so what?? Stupidity reigns!
I agree with Guest. Virginia shouldn't change it. If anything, Chicago should welcome the advertising. It has the potential to dilute the association.
Better yet, maybe some gay rights groups or some group similarly unloved by inner-city gangs could appropriate the symbol. It would be just like that chapter in Freakonomics about the KKK and Superman.
Anyone else think that the photo DCist ran of the police at the Caribbean Carnival had a cop displaying a gang sign? Working from old memory here, the bald-headed white cop on horse-back, hand on thigh, two fingers down in an inverted "V". It was odd.
Police seek driver in fatal hit-and-run at 16th and Harvard NW > I am sure the culprit is Jason Linkins!
dcist.com/2007/06/28/photo_of_the_da_33.php
photo in question
Um, that would be C-SPAN's Booknotes, not CNN's. Slight difference, fwiw.
Looks like standard finger-splay thing you automatically adopt when you wear a tool belt / gun, modified for kind of fat guy riding horse.
Put on a tool belt or holstered pistol and try to not do it! It's like ignoring your own pockets - almost impossible.
#6 - To me, it just looks like he's got his hand on his hip. Mounted cops are notoriously swishy.
I'm more concerned about the fact that it looks like Michael Chiklis works for DCPD.
To me it kinda looked like the standard us sign language symbol for the letter "N". And those two cops in front looked a little... off. I couldn't get it out of my head. What can I say? Stare into the abyss to long, and blah blah blah.
BTW, nice catch on the guy in front, Monkey.
I'd like to sound off on the absurdity of the Post's article today discovering that, hey, there are these things called "group houses" in several neighborhoods of the city. Worse, it's in the Style section, which means it has that annoying second-person voice thing going on. You hate it too, don't you? You just want to move your eyes away from the screen before you have to read another sentence of it. But you can't, because... okay, I'll stop.
Why do I find this article is so absurd? Well, as 20-something former group house resident (in Mt. P. and later in Dupont) who, for better or worse, is smack dab in the middle of the Post's beloved Express-toting demographic, I'd say the group house phase is/was a pretty widely-shared experience among myself and my over-educated peers. If the Post really wants to lure in we future yuppies, maybe they should cut back on Sunday Source and cover group houses not as some curious wrinkle of Washington social life but as an integral part of the landscape.
I'd be much more interested in, say, an article on the city's various Christian group houses, which present a fascinating twist on the theme.