The Weekly Feed: Experimentation Edition
Morning Roundup: Change Edition
Former Blade Staffers Launch 'DC Agenda'
D.C. Insurance Dept. Denies Birth Control Coverage Meddling
Controversy Over Rhee Now to Include Sex, Congress
Harry Jaffe: As the fallout from the shooting of 14-year-old DeOnté Rawlings continues, it's now Mayor Adrian Fenty taking some of the heat. According to Jaffe, Fenty's decision to pay for Rawlings' funeral and invite his sisters to speak at a press conference has soured some police officers on the young mayor, who saw the moves as an indication of where Fenty's allegiances were. "How can Fenty rebuild trust with the police?" asks Jaffe. “'Let the investigation take its course,' Cunningham says. 'And start going to roll calls and speaking to officers.' Time for Fenty to go door to door again — this time to connect with his cops."
Jonetta Rose Barras: While the government has plenty of blame to share for Rawlings' death, writes Rose Barras, it's ultimately the responsibility of District parents to do something about their kids. "Together these cases raise that all-important question: Where were the parents? A certain permissiveness prevailed — although parents claimed they knew better. There seemed to have been a disconnect between knowing and acting as the master authority in their child’s life," she writes. "Everyone knows government can never effectively do what adults, by bringing children into the world, are obligated to do as parents: keep their children out of harms way at all costs while shaping them into productive citizens. Still, it tries. And because government tries and predictably fails, it becomes the culprit. Sometimes, I feel sorry for the government."
Courtland Milloy: Instead of trying to find someone to blame, Milloy tries to find the cloud's silver-lining -- and he does in one D.C. social worker. "When Ann Brogioli showed up in the Washington Highlands for a candlelight vigil not long ago, teenagers ran to greet her with unabashed affection. Neither D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty nor D.C. Council member Marion Barry, who represents the Southeast neighborhood, was received as warmly when each arrived," he writes. Brogioli, who works at Hart Middle School and worked with Rawlings before he was shot, knows the bleak circumstances many of the District's poorest children live in. "'The odds are stacked against so many of them,' she said, surveying the homes whose occupants she knows so intimately. Many of her nights and weekends are spent with some of the city's poorest residents, seeking medical and financial help for them, trying to coax their children off the streets and back to school, and grieving with them when the streets win out," recounts Milloy.
Colbert King: If taking over the schools was like a triathlon for Fenty, improving the bureaucracy will be more like competing in the Ironman without much more than a jar of pickles for sustenance. According to King, Fenty and Michelle Rhee will need all the support they can get from the D.C. Council, especially in the face of expected complaints from workers that may have to be let go. Thankfully, he notes, a majority of the school's administrative staff resides outside the District -- which means they can't vote anyone here out of office. "There will be plenty of noise generated by disgruntled school system staffers," he writes. "But raising hell is not the same as casting D.C. ballots. Truth be told, the D.C. school system is a job center for suburbanites -- and they can't vote in the District. Twelve years ago, I reported that 65 percent of the school system's principals lived outside the city, as did 50 percent of teachers. The central office itself is a commuter haven. Roughly 520 of the 914 employees at headquarters, or 57 percent, are not D.C. residents. Those numbers ought to strike home with D.C. taxpayers: Most of the school system's payroll ends up in Maryland and Virginia coffers."
Marc Fisher: We recently reported that Silver Spring will soon be getting its own Live Nation music venue. Fisher, though, isn't happy that it'll be built with taxpayer funds. "But the Live Nation deal is a far tougher sale. After the county's massive investment in downtown Silver Spring, the Discovery Channel headquarters and the AFI theater, there ought to be a point when the market is allowed to take over," he argues.
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with respect to administrators living outside the district, the percentage of police and fire fighters who call MD or VA home is even greater. the city should require its police and fire to live in DC, as other city's do. the public policy rationale is that the city needs these types of employees to respond quickly to emergencies. but, there are other benefits, such as thousands of these workers having an actual stake in their job.
"the city should require its police and fire to live in DC, as other city's do."
I believe that the District tried to do this in the past but all of the Out-of-District workers then complained to their Congressmen and had Congress prevent the District from doing so any more. So as good of an idea as this is, like the commuter tax, it ain't going to happen.
BostonRay states an absolute fact: We need a lot more Ann Brogioli's in this region. God Bless her.
Everybody looks bad in this Rawlings shooting. The two off duty police officers should have at a bare minimum called for backup immediately rather than go looking for their own stolen property. Then one of them left the scene. Terrible procedure.
The illiterate (his description, not mine) father had 16 kids, most of which apparently were raised at taxpayer expense. In DC, that's a recipe for disaster and disappointment.
The mayor - seems to be playing all sides here, and yet he's managed to piss everyone off.
The Rawlings supporters showing up with "Fuck the Police" tshirts to the boy's funeral. Simply inexcusable.
The same Rawlings supporters refusing to help police with the investigation (apparently there were witnesses but none will come forward, even anonymously).
And IF Rawlings did fire at police, then the ultimate responsibility for his death lies with him. That is an unknown at this time, and unfortunately the police officers' poor procedure leaves their role open to distrust and suspicion.
One odd fact overlooked - the police officer that did the shooting wasn't even really 'off duty' in the sense that he wasn't a regular force cop .... his fulltime job was apparently copying and distributing police training video tapes? We really pay someone a full police salary to dub video tapes? Full time? For years on end?