Alone Together
Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues.
The Washington Highlands neighborhood of the District of Columbia is terra incognita for many Washingtonians. Tucked up against the District’s southeastern border with Maryland’s Prince George’s County, the area is walled off from the rest of the city by Oxon Run Park, the Anacostia Freeway, Bolling Air Force Base, and the Anacostia River, not to mention the yawning gap between its economic and demographic profile and that of the city at large. Overwhelmingly black, it’s nonetheless poorer and less employed than the District average for the black community--Ward 7 has a similar racial profile, but enjoys higher incomes, better education, less crime, and less poverty. In Washington Highlands, half of all children are born into poverty.
The neighborhood burst on to our consciousness this week, however, as the fallout from a confusing and tragic police drama focused the city’s attention on the world apart a mere four miles from the Capitol Dome. Last Monday night, DeOnté Rawlings allegedly stole a minibike from the home of a local police officer, located in a gated townhouse community just a few blocks from Rawlings’ residence in Condon Terrace. The officer, James Haskel, arrived home to find his bike gone, then left in his SUV with fellow officer Anthony Clay to try and find the stolen property. From there, details become hazy. The officers say they found Rawlings with the bike, and that the youth fired three times into the SUV before the men had a chance to identify themselves as police officers. Residents of the surrounding neighborhood suggest that the bullets may have come from another shooter entirely. Either way, Officer Haskel returned fire, and Rawlings ended up dead of a gunshot wound to the head.
The days since have been chaotic. Federal investigators have taken over the case. Mayor Fenty has held four press conferences on the incident, the last of which devolved into shouting as Rawlings’ sisters peppered officials with questions. District police officers have begun grumbling to the press off the record, expressing anger over the mayor’s deference to the relatives of young man they see as a would-be cop killer. Investigators allege that Fenty’s diplomacy might compromise their investigation. No less a personage than ex-police chief Charles “please-don’t-audit-my-crime-stats” Ramsey chided Fenty for speaking so often to the public.
And in many public forums, vitriol has swamped careful analysis of the situation, what went wrong, and what is at stake. Let’s be clear: the act of stealing the minibike was wrong and criminal and Rawlings deserved to be arrested and tried for that crime. He did not deserve to die for it. Others will argue that he did deserve to die for shooting at police officers. But one has to remember two things: first, it is not clear that Rawlings did fire on police, and second, he may not have known that his targets were police officers. This is important; in a neighborhood where beefs often result in gun battles and murders, the sight of an SUV cruising slowly around the neighborhood could have been terrifying. Rawlings may have felt that his life was in immediate danger.
Picture taken by e.teel.
Does that fear justify the act of firing randomly at unknown automobiles? No, absolutely not, in no way does it do so. Does it indicate that the police response was way off base in this situation? Absolutely. And this is why I have a great deal of understanding for the path Mayor Fenty is following in the wake of the shooting. Police, understandably, want him to send the message that aggression against cops is beyond the pale and unforgivable. I think Mayor Fenty knows that police officers must be a part of the community and not apart from the community. In the long-term fight against crime, it’s more important to try and defuse an us-against-them mentality than to tell police that he has their back in all cases, no matter what they’ve done.
Ward 8, crime-wise, is a mess. Many news organizations have noted glumly that the District’s homicide numbers are up this year relative to last year. That’s misleading; for Wards 1 through 7, there have been 3 fewer homicides this year than there were during the same period last year. For Ward 8, there have been 17 more this year than during the same period in 2006. All of the city’s homicide increase can be explained by increases in one ward.
Why are crime numbers there so stubborn? The difference is due, in part, to the persistence of beefs between rival crews and neighborhoods. These groups remain attractive to young people, and generally reckless, due to the overwhelming sense of hopelessness and lack of opportunity available. As Rodney Taylor, a firefighter quoted in a Post story on the Rawlings shooting says, “These brothers are hurting. They want somebody that can offer them something. The most hurting thing is so many say to me, 'I'm 14. I know I'm not going to make it to 18. Why should I change?'”
But these kinds of problems are not only confined to Ward 8. The difference in outcomes between that area and the rest of the city stems from other neighborhood factors—primarily, the attitude of the local population toward police. In other neighborhoods, policing is more effective because the level of trust between residents and cops is far higher. Residents expect that a police call will bring an officer, who’ll do a reasonable job attempting to solve the problem, while officers believe that residents will call when they have needs, and will work with officers to solve cases. Trust between residents and police is mutually reinforcing and makes the business of policing far easier for police.
There is no such trust in Ward 8. Residents cannot be confident that police will respond or that they’ll be fair and attentive when they do. They suspect that police will play fast and loose with rules and evidence when they need to. And because local residents are wary of police officers, they’re much less likely to take the risk of testifying against wrongdoers in their neighborhoods. Officers routinely express frustration with residents’ unwillingness to work with them to solve crimes, but why should they? Robert Pierre writes in the Post:
The killing also raised the ire of Condon Terrace residents, many of whom harbor negative feelings toward the police. Some said officers don't respond when they're called; others said the police who do come often rifle through the pockets of youths and adults who haven't done anything wrong.Faced with risks on both sides, the best solution for many is to simply keep their mouths shut.
This is what Mayor Fenty sees. Just as positive resident-officer interactions are mutually reinforcing, so too are the negative ones. Anything that separates the policed from the police makes residents less likely to work with officers, and makes officers more likely to retreat behind their cars, guns, and authority, perpetuating a cycle that allows crime to flourish in neighborhoods like Washington Highlands.
If I were a police officer, I would probably be frustrated with the mayor. Theirs is a difficult and dangerous job—one I in no way envy. But the future of crime fighting in Ward 8 depends upon residents there having confidence in the police force. They have to know that the city will not sacrifice due process and justice for the sake of efficacy. The actions of the officers in this case are unlikely to make local residents feel better about the policemen in their midst. Mayor Fenty has to do what he can to mitigate the damage to the public’s trust in police. I, for one, support him in those efforts.