January 14, 2008
Morning Roundup: Too Little, Too Late Edition
Good morning, Washington. Just a few days after the grisly discovery of four dead girls in a Southeast home, and Mayor Adrian Fenty is set to announce today a task force that will lead a reorganization of the city’s social services, including the firings of specific individuals involved in the Jacks case. On Friday Fenty laid out a timeline of exactly how many times the murdered girls came into contact with D.C. social services and other agencies, saying, "These matters were not handled as they should have been." It now appears that the children may have been dead since May and that only a few months ago, police were called to the house with a report that the mother might have been holding her eldest daughter hostage. A candlelight vigil is planned for Thursday at 5 p.m. in front of the home in the 4200 block of 6th Street SE.
District Could Ban Detergents: D.C. Council member Mary Cheh has introduced a bill that would ban the majority of brand-name dishwasher detergents currently for sale in an effort to protect the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Most detergents contain phosphates that are very harmful to fish and other wildlife that live in the Bay. Another D.C. law already bans the sale of most phosphate-containing household cleaners, with the exception of dishwasher detergents.
MPD Officer Arrested for DUI: WTOP is reporting that MPD Officer Ronzell Baker, a 19-year veteran of the force serving in the Third District, was arrested for a DUI over the weekend after getting into a fenderbender in an unmarked department car that he signed out of the motor pool improperly. An investigation into the circumstances surrounding his arrest is planned.
Briefly Noted: Rowhouse on Kenyon St. NW destroyed in fire ... Woman shot and killed outside carry-out restaurant in Capitol Heights ... Armored truck impersonator got a total of $850,000 from two banks.
Photo by gattoraffa
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awesome, ms. cheh! the article says that other states are moving the same way. it would be nice to see the district lead on this one. if an alternative to phosphate use exists, then let's go there. no need to pollute the bay just because it's too "convenient" not to.
(BTW, the loveaccess.com ad above the box here is going to get me in trouble. my eyes are wandering...)
I find it insulting that city officials are blaming things on Social Services when they're not properly funded or have enough manpower to begin with. So far, I've heard so many conflicting stories about what really happened with their visits to that house, I'm not sure who to believe.
I find it insulting that city officials are blaming things on Social Services when they're not properly funded or have enough manpower to begin with. So far, I've heard so many conflicting stories about what really happened with their visits to that house, I'm not sure who to believe.
Oh yeah awesome Cheh, we can't get a loitering law to stop drug dealers, but we can ban soap. Please do use the gun law as a model.
Just how are you going to enforce the ban? Just maybe we could wait for Virginia, Pennsyvania, and Maryland to pass a ban.
How are they going to stop people like me who shop at Costco in VA from bringing our Electrasol or Cascade across into the District? I can see the valuable use of MPD time inspecting cars for contraband cleaners.
Demon,
I appreciate the fact that DC Social Services is almost certainly underfunded and undermanned. Even so, isn't it the primary responsibility of Social Services to prevent situations like this from occuring and if they're not to blame, then who is?
DC should really should be working to amend the Chesapeake Bay Agreement to ban dishwashing detergent, therefore VA, MD and PA will have to follow suit.
When diswasher detergent is outlawed, only outlaws will have dishwasher detergent.
I agree with the short-sighted aspect of Cheh's plan. Unless there will be inspectors making sure no DC residents who shop in VA or MD are sneaking in the banned detergents, this won't do much other than serve as a nice press clipping for Cheh's scrapbook. If preservation of the Bay were really desired, then this ban would have to be done by MD, VA, Pa and DC acting jointly.
People of Ward 3: How much longer are you going to stand by while Mary Cheh forces her pro-dishpan-hands agenda on our city?
"When diswasher detergent is outlawed, only outlaws will have dishwasher detergent."
The difference is that most people really don't care that much what brand of dishwasher detergent they use. They will buy whatever is sitting on the shelf in front of them. Maybe there will be some tiny fringe element of rabid Dawn detergent fans (or whatever) driving to Arlington to buy detergent. Who cares? 99.9% of people will just buy whatever's at the store, which will advance the environmental protection goal as much as DC can. (I suspect there will also be some overflow effect if the supermarkets decide it's easier to just buy the same brands for all area stores.)
Ok, maybe you guys addressed this at some point, but I've been a little too busy recently to keep up with DCist: the council has introduced legislation to overturn Fenty's cab meter decision and replace it with those zone-meter things. I attended part of the public comment back in December, and I knew Graham was going to push for this. This is bullshit if you ask me. I hope it is defeated. Anyone know what the likelihood of it passing is? The Current newspaper seemed to indicate that at least 3-4 councilmembers were on board.
Give me Palmolive or give me death!
Reid - I recall that that GPS cab meter bill was in Graham's committee and had his and Barry's support. I don't recall if it had come out of committee yet. I don't think it has much chance in the full Council.
Hillrat,
Social Services isn't fullproof, as is neither the police to prevent crimes or the fire department to prevent housefires. I find it disengenuous of city officials to blame this squarely on them.
I'd like to see a full investigation to find out the scope of how much or little social services screwed up (it's likely this was screwed up in some way), but nowhere does it say that city officials would put more funds towards that department to alleviate an already overburdened workforce.
Hey nay-sayers: RTFA.
Cheh's idea would ban the sale of those detergents, not the possession. Sheesh! Yeah, that means you could still have it in your house if you bought it elsewhere and the government wouldn't care. The point of the ban is to make things just a little bit better for the Bay. Like, if 60% of the dish soap in DC homes is purchased in the District and the rest comes from MD or VA, then that would be 60% less phosphates from soap that District residents send into the water. Does it fix everything? Of course not, it's not designed to... but I'm glad to see someone at least tryingt o help out in a small way.
Demon - I hear ya, but part of what we do know is that a hotline worker took a call about the family living in a van and closed the case because the family didn't have a fixed address. That's a colossal mistake anyway you slice it. Would leaving that call open have made a difference? Unfortunately we'll never know, but judging from this tragic result it certainly couldn't have hurt.
As far as the City promising more funds goes, I'm actually almost glad that Fenty didn't go for the stock solution of promising to increase funding for Social Services while allowing the agency to operate in the same way. If there's one thing that DCPS *has* taught us, it's that throwing money at a problem is no guarantee of results.
To the best of my knowledge, only Courtland Miloy has really brought up the culpability of the family in the death of the girls in Southeast. They filled up three rows in the courthouse last week when Banks was first brought before a judge and there's a godmother who has been quoted in what seems like every media source in town...where were all of they from May until last week?
Don't get me wrong, the city most certainly failed these girls (and their mother who clearly needed help) but so too did their families, friends and neighbors....
Social services can't prevent crazy 100% of the time.
Although a Child and Family Services social worker made at least two subsequent visits to Jacks's rowhouse, in the 4200 block of Sixth Street SE, no one answered the door either time. Less than three weeks later, Child and Family Services staffers closed the case, after receiving an unconfirmed report that the Jacks family might have moved to Maryland to live with relatives.
The lesson here is clear: if you've murdered someone in your home, just pretend you're not home and don't answer the door. This should buy you a few months until the U.S. Marshalls come to evict you.
Don't know what's more disturbing, the fact that nobody seems surprised that MPD officers are driving drunk or that comments on the detergent story are beating the dead kid story 2-to-1. Whatever happend to "if it bleeds, it leads?" "If it involves regulating phosphates, it leads" doesn't even rhyme, people! And "if it lathers, it blathers" is just plain stupid.
what's it like to reside with four decomposing bodies??