March 12, 2008
Church Serving LGBT Community Shot Up
Congregants consider homophobia as a possible reason behind a shooting at the Metropolitan Community Church in Shaw on Friday evening, WJLA reports. MCC serves a predominantly LGBT congregation, and this marks the second time in recent history that the church was the victim of gunfire.
At the time of the shooting, several church members were inside the building for a Bible study. People inside either quickly hit the floor or ran for cover as bullets shattered the glass. No injuries were reported.
The shooting caused an estimated $6,000 in damage to church windows; MCC already spent several thousand in repairs from the last incident.
The gay-owned Long View Gallery on 9th Street NW also had a bullet go through a window recently. Gallery employee Larissa Cyran told WJLA, "It kind of seems like there is a lot of hostility between the classes coming in. I don't know if it's necessarily homophobic."
The MPD told NBC4 they believe Friday's shooting was actually gang-related, as the Shaw neighborhood has seen a dramatic increase in gang violence in the past few months. Police say they have increased foot patrols in the area for several weeks.
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This is certainly horrible and don't want to make light of it but here come the manhole and Pope comments...
Increasing patrols AFTER a crime has happened doesn't do shit! Lightning may strike in the same place twice, but it's not going to happen in that one week window of increased patrols!
I posted this on the MPD-3D Listserv about the church:
Who could be so hateful we ask.
Look no farther than across the street where the youth gather in the
shadows. They have an excellent vantage point from where they gather-
it's darker and not rich in the sodium light most of us walk under.
Warm summer nights and mild winter ones are when they gather on the
steps watching cars and people go by. It is this very vantage point
where plans for robberies, muggings, and break-ins are made. The
gathering youth are careful to not attract too much attention to this
dark perch, as they know it's one of the last in the neighborhood.
Non neighborhood visitors would not know of the church's attendees,
let alone be remotely interested. As with many things in this
neighborhood, the culprit is very close by, but in his mind it's a
world away because it's across the street and unknown.
DC criminals will, 90% of the time, go out of their "sensed
community" to commit crimes like these. The smaller the sensed
community, the closer (miles wise) the culprit is to his mark. Since
DC youth under 18 statistically do not leave the metropolitan area
very often at all, the focus should be easier.
If this goes without punishment, then it's only a matter of summer
coming before something ten times more dramatic comes to this very
church and its entire block.
there's increased violence against gay targets in shaw because there are more openly gay venues there now. i don't want to discount homophobia here, because i know it remains an issue in this city, as progressive as we'd like to think it is.
the fact, though, is that there is a lot of warehoused poverty in shaw, and until that changes, there will be continued crime in the neighborhood. knocking down kelsey gardens and lincoln westmoreland can't happen soon enough, if you ask me.
Oh, and there were a couple of cars set ablaze recently not too far from this church.
I doubt this was gay related. Gangs don't give a shit about gays unless your in the gang and at that point your probably gonna die. Sounds like the neighborhood insurgents have bad aim or just wanna scare the crap out of everybody. Cosign the extra patrols arguments, you need to go house to house and clear out all the riff raff, guns, and drugs or do what the Brazilian gang taskforce does and shoot them in the middle of the street.
Why exactly do people consider DC to be a gay-friendly city?
The hatred that I've experienced from blacks in this city is something that I've frankly never experienced anywhere else I've lived, from anyone.
I fully agree with IMGoph - knock down the projects, kick the ghetto thugs out of DC, and life will be much, much, much better.
We're discounting the evidence that it could be a rival gay gang? Like the Sharks.
or... The Diors
Oh please. Regardless of whether it is gang related, it is gay related. The assailant used a pellet gun. What gang member goes around shooting people with a pellet gun.
This is the same neighborhood where churches protested vehemently against the opening of Bebar because it was a gay bar (and lost). And it's the same neighborhood up in arms over Caucasians (many gay) moving in and renovating the neighborhood.
You can't seriously look at a gay related church that's been shot up twice in recent memory and say that it's not been targeted. Coincidence, I think not.
Sounds like a job for Ferocia Coutoura and her hairspray.
Whoever says this is all just coincidence needs to take off those distorting rose-colored glasses!
Good thing the Feds reduced those crack cocaine mandatory minimum sentencing laws, so those guys who got arrested downtown in the 1980s can get out on early parole. I'm sure they'll be really impressed at how clean downtown has become in their absence and will be eager to contribute to the welfare of such a rich and vibrant community.
And any member of MS13 will tell you, it isn't a "gang" it's a "club."
Anyone at MCC would be able to tell you that the rose-colored glasses are soooo last season.
Rose colored glasses are last season? Oh drats! I just bought eight pair of them from that stolen goods flea and tick market over on Florida/Georgia.
Does anyone know of their return and exchange policy?
Rose colored glasses are last season? Oh drats! I just bought eight pair of them from that stolen goods flea and tick market over on Florida/Georgia.
Does anyone know of their return and exchange policy?
As sucky as the commute was this morning, think my new digs will be in the burbs for sure. Gosh, I'll miss out on all the hip and cool posturing bs from people whose opinion means pretty much nothing.
"I fully agree with IMGoph - knock down the projects, kick the ghetto thugs out of DC, and life will be much, much, much better."
now you're talking!
Sorry, but I highly doubt there is going to be any less discrimination against LGBT community in the suburbs. Less violence, maybe, but certainly not less anti-gay bullshit. Same goes for plowing the projects.
So how long after the 2nd Amendment case will DC get it's own chapter of the Pink Pistols?
Criswell predicts a protracted turf battle between thugged-out geriatric gangsta g's and fabulously attired queer militias. And maybe with a little luck, and just a pinch of fairy dust, they can join forces with their gay morlock brethren and take the battle underground.
With sexy results...
And maybe with a little luck, and just a pinch of fairy dust, they can join forces with their gay morlock brethren and take the battle underground.
With sexy results...
Then they could adapt their story into a series of adult pictures under the 'Hot Tranny Mess' title, with sequels like 'Hot Tranny Mess II: The Legend of Curly's Gold' and 'Hot Tranny Mess 3: Tokoyo Drift.' What I wouldn't give for a few days on that casting couch..
i need to jump in here before my words get too distorted. i wanna see the places where the warehousing of the poor has happened eliminated, yes. but i don't want to kick these people out. 85% of the people in assisted living are good people, with shit luck.
these places need to be rebuilt as mixed housing, and i believe we as a society have an obligation to help those less fortunate. (ask me more about my socialist leanings down the line.) anyway, i also think that those who are causing trouble need to be cracked down on hard. i'm pretty no-nonsense when it comes to crime. i realize a lot of people committing these assaults, etc., are coming from a rough background, but that doesn't give them a license to lash out against the rest of society in a sociopathic way. if you commit an assault like this, regardless of age, i want to see the book thrown at you...
Section 8 housing is on the way out, hardly any landlords accept vouchers, and the waiting list for low-income housing stretches into the YEARS. Low income housing downtown is dying on the vine, to be replaced by mixed-income properties that skew towards middle income residents. If you got no income, you either double up with another family or head to PG where the benefits suck slightly less.
As for the criminal activity, these are minors that take advantage of the revolving door. What is the point of even arresting them if they're back on the street within hours? The 17-year-olds with a rap sheet a mile long, if they ever get to prison, have been pyling their trade for more years than you've spent in college. It's all they know. What's the City Council done to address youth recidivism, besides appointing a blueribbon panel to explore how governments deal with it in the Bahamas, Tuscany, and Provence?
You didn't really think crime was going to go down indefinitely, did you?
I propose using catapults to launch the recidivist youth elsewhere.
Try getting a DCPS to even pronounce "trebuchet" let alone know how to work one.
well, if the catapults and trebuchets don't work, there's always that traditional korean war machine that someone mentioned last week...
So what could be more surprising than the first battalion transvestite brigade?
So long as they have a trebuchet full of raw sewage.
And a halal version for those of the Muslim faith.
"This is the same neighborhood where churches protested vehemently against the opening of Bebar because it was a gay bar"
They also protested Queen of Sheba (not a gay bar), and lost. The opponents protest anything and everything associated with liquor, unless it also sells lottery tickets
Well for starters. This is not necessarily gang violence but a few assholes doing this. Now for some of the comments as to where some of you are referring to the blacks in DC in a negative way and talking about getting rid of Section 8 and the projects (city housing).
Let’s be clear about some things. I as an educated Black gay WASHINGTONIAN really don't appreciate comments as such. We welcome everyone to Washington DC. However GAY & straight WHITES can forget it if they really think paying all this SKY HIGH real estate to fit their superficial needs puts you in some kind of control, NOT!! You need to learn to be inclusive to the black community and likewise from them.
But all of this I'm paying 2,000$ a month and they need to go. It's not happening. The same way some of you feel about the crime against gays which is wrong. Some of us Black gays feel about how whites gays are prejudice against us in the same community.
GO FIGURE!!! you can't have it both ways!
CRIME NEEDS TO BE HANDLED SWIFT AND STERN I AGREE
But you guys need to learn to be inclusive as well. You just don't really think because you got the dream job with the big salary and you’re going to move in a mostly black community and city as well and think you're taking over...
THAT'S SIMPLY NOT HAPPENING!
See, now, Mr. C.....
It's not really about 'taking over'.
It's about being able to walk down the damn street and have a relatively decent chance of not getting smacked over the head by one of your neighbors.
I don't give a rats ass if the crime is being committed by elderly Jewish grandmothers on the way to synagogue or young black men hanging out on the corner. Either way it needs to stop.
I don't give a rats ass if the crime is being committed by elderly Jewish grandmothers on the way to synagogue or young black men hanging out on the corner. Either way it needs to stop.
The problem is that no one is talking about razing a Jewish Old Folk's Home, but people have no problem (over the internet of course where there will no repercussions for talking like a jackass) with saying that the projects should be bulldozed and generally saying some pretty hateful shit about the poor people that live there.
Seems to me like the last groups of people that it's safe to spew hate about are Southern Whites and Poor Blacks.
thank you, hillman. that's why i wanted to clarify my comments, because i knew that somewhere along the line, someone was going to go for the jugular and accuse me of being a gentrifying, move-em-all-out-and-give-me-my-space asshole, when all i want is sanity. lawbreaking≠sanity.
Mr C,
yes it really is about "taking over". you all may attempt to thinly veil the issue as one of "improving neighborhoods" by virtue of your making economic incursions into some of the neighborhoods that many of you would not have dared dream of venturing into during the days of yore, but it really boils down to displacement. The sense of entitlement & the attitude of "i've-bought-property-here-now-so-all-of-you-undesirables-pls-leave" is way more than a notion. Those who have lived here long enough REALIZE that these juveniles are out of control and have NEITHER FEAR, NOR RESPECT for anyone, nor anything. Those who have lived here long enough make concerted efforts to avoid these types of individuals and safeguard ourselves. We know not to walk ALONE down dimly-lit streets late at night WEARING iPod earbuds, carrying personal effects and make ourselves visible as crime targets. Ironically, many of the yuppies attempting to re-claim DC, have become victims and are realizing something that many of us knew all too well - the police can't save you ! It's a matter of urban warfare and the guerillas are not scared of your nor your claims to wealth & power. They are not bemused by your presence and see you as nothing more than an opportunity for gain. When you come into the neighborhoods, "revitalize" them, and drive up property costs and the costs of other goods and services, they see you as prey. Surely, you knew these places were unsafe before you decided to embark upon them, but your delusions of manifest destiny have blinded you to the harsh realities of urban warfare - just like the presence of the good ol' USA in Iraq. What did you think that once you all arrived on the scene that everything would neatly fall into place just for YOU ? Did you think that the crime would cease because YOU would DEMAND police protection and pressure the local leaders and politicians into doing your bidding ? Your hidden agendas have been divulged, now deal with it. It was a touch-and-go situationg before you came and now you think that everything should just be nice and rosy for you and your likes ???? It's a serious reality check, ain't it ? But this is only the beginning because when the weather warms up - be on the lookout. There are not enough police, jails and reformist to fix the problems created when people are displaced, disenfranchised and marginalized -and believe it or not, that's what it really is. And yes, Mr. C hit it dead on the head, as paradoxical as it may seem, white gays can be some of the most elitist and racist individuals on the planet. Then when they're victimized, they wanna cry Nelly. Karma is a mofo.