Go Home Already: Shouts and Murmurs
Man Stops Traffic at 17th and K to Demand $200 Million
Compromise Uncertain on Same-Sex Marriage Law
Morning Roundup: Second Helpings Edition
Fire at 17th and L NW Forces Evacuations
Good morning, Washington. It's not a local story exactly, but since it surely affects a lot of people in this town we might as well mention this morning's big non-Iranian news: President Obama is expected to announce the extension of benefits to federal employees' same-sex partners. No word yet on whether those with partners of the opposite sex will be allowed to write off the diminished value of their marriages on this year's taxes.
Va. Is Last To Ask For Roads Stimulus: Given all of the attention paid to traffic congestion in Northern Virginia, you'd think that the state might be a little speedier to apply for free government money for transportation projects. That's not the case, though; as the Post reports, Virginia was dead last in line for stimulus money. Apparently the state's insistence on collecting feedback from local governments and its threadbare, cash-strapped projects pipeline combined to delay the compilation of a list of things in need of funding. It doesn't seem as though this will cost the state any money, although the work — and its economy-stimulating effects — will be delayed.
Fined For Flashing Lights: The Post brings a mostly-if-not-only-in-D.C. sort of story: Mark Zaid was fined $50 for flashing his headlights to thank a driver for doing the same in order to warn him of a speed trap. This bugged Zaid, so he challenged the fine. The ticketing officer didn't show up, so the ticket was dismissed — but Zaid, a lawyer, isn't satisfied, and is demanding an apology and says that if he doesn't get one he'll sue.
Briefly Noted: Water main break in Alexandria on Quaker Lane... Fatal shooting in Trinidad... D.C. Council asks feds to charge Holocaust Museum shooter (who apparently had some pretty creepy art in his home) with hate crime... Woodbridge bus driver charged in connection to killing of roommate, fellow bus driver... Councilman Harry Thomas, Jr. wants cameras on all MPD officers' guns (like Doom!) (video)... Two decomposed bodies discovered near church, school in Hyattsville thanks to informant's tip...
This Day In DCist: One year ago Olsson's Penn Quarter store shut down and Fort Reno's arsenic scare ended.
Image posted to DCist Photos by Flickr user cacophony76
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A police officer saw it and issued him a $50 citation, telling Zaid that it was illegal in Maryland to flash headlights while driving and that he could actually be charged with something worse: "obstructing a police investigation."
I highly recommend that Montgomery County file suit against all those websites that tell drivers where speed traps are located. Think of all the police investigations that are being obstructed.
They should also consider taxing all foreigners living abroad.
You mean like the Montgomery County Police Department's web site?
+1
No, but really. He's referring to sites like Trapster (trapster.com). I tried it out on I-95 heading to New York on my BlackBerry and it's novel. But, I don't ever really rely on it. Also, it has the most bogus user-reported traps here on 16th Street, which I travel the entire length of everyday. Luckily, you can vote them down :)
"obstructing a police investigation" = Not kissing an officer's ass as he is beating you with a nightstick.
"but Zaid, a lawyer, isn't satisfied, and is demanding an apology and says that if he doesn't get one he'll sue."
oh for the love of *#@)%!
I'm so sick of these arrogant lawyers who stub their toe then go filing suit... who the hell do you think you are DEMANDING things and then threatening legal action when you don't get what you want!? My mom had a solution for children who think that way--a smack to the face--maybe we should legalize such punishments for lawyers who abuse (and clog up) the legal system with frivelous law suits! Sniveling little S-bag!
I refer the jury to the precedent set in "Teabag vs. Face" wherein the plaintiff, upon loss of his suit for damages for having stubbed his toe, was sentenced to wearing an unwashed nutsack on his forehead. Upon appeal, the jury found that the punishment was not only constitutional but hilarious.
Yeah those stupid arrogant lawyers! Suing or bringing to court cases they think perpetrate injustice. I, for one, wish lawyers never existed so we wouldn't have legalized abortion or desegregated schools! Grrr! *grumble* at lawyers!
So, wait, this guy wants an apology for his abortion? Or is the school segregated against lawyer fetuses? And what about the teabag? Will nobody think of the teabag?
There's a difference between legal action to correct an unjust cause, and one using legal action as a THREAT to recieve an apology for a ticket that was DROPPED even though the ticket was written for engaging in a behavior which is known to be a method of circumventing the law. This lawyer wants to satisfy a personal need for attention and seeks only to further inflate his sense of self-importance and self-worth at the expense of the tax payers who would have to fund the outcome of his suit.
I bet he's hung like a mosquito too!
I'm not saying the issue isn't petty, but it pisses the living fuck out of me when I hear people complain about lawyers like that as if they're all like that.
MoCo should respond in kind by pointing out that Zaid's demands are frivolous; even vexatious.
What does "a mostly-if-not-only-in-D.C. sort of story" mean? This happens everywhere they have cars and speed traps.
I salute Zaid. Hopefully he can put an end to the silliness that is the obstruction excuse. Investigation into what, exactly? A speed trap isn't an investigation for the simple reason that there's not yet a crime. It's a TRAP.
Oh and good work Tom for the early roundup.
The more traps the merrier! You drivers too easily forget there are pedestrians out there who have to get around on the same roads you do! In this city people don't stop at stop signs, they don't know how to use turn signals, they don't obey red lights or other signage, and drive like screaming bats tearing out of hell! It's a nightmare for those of us who are forced to walk on busy streets, and myself with limited vision it's an even scarier situation. So if these little 'traps' encourage you to drive more resopnsibly (or at least make you pay the price when you don't) then I'm ALL FOR IT! Driving is a priviledge not a right!
Okay, first of all, this took place in Bethesda, not on the streets of DC. And second of all, the guy in question didn't get a speeding ticket, he got a ticket for flashing his lights and potentially "obstructing an investigation." And finally, this took place on Westlake Drive near Montgomery Mall. NOBODY walks near that place. It's a goddamned deathtrap. The median strip is littered with the corpses of pedestrians foolish enough to jaywalk.
I almost got into an accident on Democracy Blvd near Montgomery Mall when I stopped to let a high school kid cross the street IN THE CROSSWALK. A self-important jackass behind me almost slammed into the back of my car while blaring on his horn. He didn't want to slow down or stop doing 65 in a 35 or yield to a pedestrian. (No doubt he would have blamed the kid if he'd run him over.) I have no problem at all with speed traps.
Spoken like a lifelong pedestrian who doesn't know what the fuck they're talking about. These speed traps and cameras are about revenue generation, not public safety.
I just got a ticket in the mail for doing 58 on the I-395 heading into DC where they drop the speed limit to 45. I guess they were trying to keep all the pedestrians on the interstate safe.
HR, why can't it be both about safety and revenue? When did anyone ever say it was only about safety? Why is this such an enormously difficult concept for people who get tickets to understand?
It's a tax on undesirable behavior. Like a cigarette tax, it both discourages the behavior and raises money from those who refuse to stop the undesirable activity. If that means they can keep taxes down on desirable behavior, like working or owning a home, then fantastic. Don't like it? Don't speed.
If the police were so keen on safety, they would park a police car in plain sight, or put up one of those signs that tells you how fast you're driving. Either action would be effective in causing people to slow down, and would be cheaper than hiring someone to dispense tickets all day. The police are not discouraging speeding by hiding behind a tree and waiting to ticket drivers after the fact. I say it's underhanded. There are plenty of people who drive recklessly, but it's easier to catch people in speed traps so that's what the cops tend to do.
Nevertheless, the lawyer in question clearly has not lived in the area long if he's getting so worked up about it.
The point of making cameras and speed traps less obvious is so that people don't know where they are. If you drive around with confidence that you won't get a ticket without some sort of warning, you'll drive faster when you don't have that warning.
People are all for effective law enforcement, so long as it's not directed at other people...
Errata: "so long as it's directed at other people"
So you're saying if there's a cop sitting there in plain sight you're more likely to speed?? You're awfully daring.
That would work brilliantly, if only MPD had the resources to stage a car in plain site of everyone on every road everywhere.
Barring that, making people think they may encounter MPD anywhere seems a reasonable compromise.
AMEN! Glad someone understands the issue here.
The people who complain the most about speed traps are the ones who are the WORST offenders of speeding laws. So... stop speeding, or, pay up and shut up!
I've no problem with these means in the revenue generating context either.
Your words spoken like a true road warrior who only thinks of where YOU have to go and fast YOU need to get there.
Speeding tickets are a clear violation of the DC Human Rights Act. I have a right to get up late and exceed the speed limit while talking on the phone about nothing of any consequence. If you don't want to get killed, get the hell out of my way. I'm not responsible, and neither is my car. Why do you think the Post articles about road accidents always say, "Two Pedestrians Killed in Vehicle Accident?" It's the pedestrian that's always at fault.
And we have a word for people who insist on doing the speed limit. We call them "Kentuckians."
Haha silly me for trying to trample on your rights! I'll contact the Council about adding in "homocidal road-rage" to the list of protected classes! :-)
"Homocidal road-rage"?
Well, technically, killing a homosexual in a road rage incident would be classified as a hatecrime. Homicide, however, in certain Wards, is considered sport. And remember: the FBI is powerless to investigate cases of oral-genital intimacy unless it somehow interfered with interstate commerce.
Hobo strangling, however, remains a crime of passion.
Since no one else has pointed out the obvious:
The lawyer is worse than Hitler for flashing his lights.
There. It needed to be said.
I really hope that President Obama extends FULL AND EQUAL benefits to all of us GLBT federal employees... it would be a proper and necessary first step toward keeping his promises toward the gay community. I would love to be able to say that I proudly work for an employer who recognizes equality to the fullest extent possible!
Agreed. I like this president.
That would be nice, but DOMA stands in his way there. He won't be able to offer health benefits, survivor benefits, or anything really useful until that POS is repealed.
Agreed! I would consider working for the federal government again-- something I never thought I'd say-- if we could get full benefits.
I'm afraid Obama's promises are not all they're cracked up to be. He's giving "benefits" to same-sex partners of federal employees, but these won't include health insurance. And these benefits will only last until he leaves office. see more here
Anyone know what was going on at the waterfront park near where Virginia Avenue and the Rock Creek Parkway intersect? On my run I saw ambulance, fire truck, police cars, boat and helicopter in the area. There were police and fire trucks zooming around at the Memorial Bridge too so I was wondering if someone jumped or fell in the river?
I heard something about an overturned kayak on the radio.
How do you get a kayak on a radio?
No soap...radio?
A friend of mine was driving on a country road one night and flashed his brights for a minute. He was ticketed for inappropriate use of headlights.
Flashing headlights at oncoming cars is dangerous. You friend should be worried that he could have been involved in a violent gang initiation.
Love that one...
I wish the police would target the lunatics who weave in and out of lanes on the freeway and those assholes that stay in the Maine Avenue offramp on 395 and then squeeze in at the last minute.
See, you wouldn't have this problem if they just tore down the SE Freeway.
Right, except for the part where I wouldn't be able to get to work
See? You don't have to deal with Maine Avenue idiots AND you get to retire early. It's win-win!
Ooooooh, I totally agree with you about the Maine offramp - they are complete clusterfucks, especially to those of us who are headed into the District (i.e., to the right).
Did I mention that they're all headed into the People's Republic?!
Are you sure these are "speed traps"? I watched the Dukes of Hazzard. Boss Hogg and Roscoe would change the speed limit and make it higher than it was, pull you over, and change it back. THAT was called a speed trap. Aren't these guys just enforcing the actual speed limit? That's not really a "trap" if it's posted correctly and you deserve a ticket because you were breaking the law.
According to Webster's, a trap is, among other things, "something by which one is caught or stopped unawares." Deceit - a la Boss Hogg and Roscoe P. Coltrane - is not an element.
Moreover, the Po-Po did not issue our fearless Esquire a ticket for speeding, but rather for flashing his lights. Get your facts straight before taking a moral high road.
Nevermind the fact that he was doing the blinking to thanks someone for aawarning about an approaching speedtrap, which means he was likely speeding to begin with. You try being a pedestrian for your whole life with no chance of every being able to be the ass hole behind the wheel and see if you don't get a little vindictive toward drivers!
So you're saying that speeders should carry a bow and arrow in their backseat so they don't violate their parole? I have no problem with this.
I agree with you, FnA (and nice reference to Dukes of Hazzard, by the way). I have no sympathy for people who get "trapped" because they were breaking the law by speeding. Yes, it was lame that he got ticketed for flashing his headlights, but he probably would've gotten a ticket for speeding anyway.
And P.S. I have never heard of flashing your headlights at someone to warn them of an upcoming speed trap. Is this a Maryland thing?
My comment about the term "speed trap" had nothing to do with the lawyer who was pulled over, but of my understanding of the phrase.
I think it all started on country roads where there aren't any stop lights, so you're more likely to speed. At least, that's how it was for me growing up. My parents would flash their lights to let someone know to slow down.
It's definitely a Maryland thing. Nobody in Virginia flashes headlights to warn of speed traps because everybody has a radar detector, even though it's illegal. To quote a famous dissident, "An individual who breaks a law that his conscience tells him is unjust,
and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law." Besides, it's also illegal to trade arms for hostages, but we manage to do that as well.
Also, extremism in the defense of extremism is no vice.
No, it's definitely not just a Maryland thing. I've seen it done everywhere I've lived up and down the east coast.
it's everywhere. the article even called it an issue that has been debated all over the country and in Canada and cited a similar case from Tennessee. I've lived in Minnesota, Utah and California and it's done in all of those places as well.
We got two emailed security alerts this morning about attempted muggings (by teenagers) on Mass Ave., near Union Station.
See? I told you this was going to happen. You close down the theaters in Union Station, all the teens who yell at the screens are going to pour out into the streets and start mugging people. Notice you don't have this problem at the Gallery Place theaters. All those kids do is just hang out at the McDonalds and loiter.
The Union Station theaters are still open. But the schools are closed, so let's blame that.
Kids don't actually go to school in DC - so we should blame the pleasant weather.
Agreed. The weather is to blame. Along with Colonel Sanders, menthol cigarettes, and the KKK.
I stopped going to that Union Station years ago after a hood rat challenged me to a fight after the movie was over.
It was a comedy. I couldn't enjoy it because the hood rat sat right behind me. After the movie, I stood up and turned around to say, "Alright, let's do it." He had 2 female hood rats with him. The teen hood rat saw that he was no match for a man that spent 3 nights a week in a gym and was twice his size. He just walked away. That was years ago. Now, I'm bigger with fat and balding.
Has Mika Brzezinski been in town again?
I find it amusing that a guy coming home from church with his son was breaking the law and then thanked someone for warning him about the speed trap so he wouldn't get caught. The lord works in mysterious ways.
And by "lord" you mean "the devil incarnate."
I'd be hard pressed to identify a story more local than a major policy shift for employee benefits in the industry that is the backbone of the local economy...
except maybe a douchebag lawyer with in inflated sense of entitlement mucking up the court system over an apology. Coming back from church, huh? Heh. I hope for his sake there really is an afterlife.
"Va. Is Last To Ask For Roads Stimulus"
It takes time to make arrangements with Fort Knox in order to pave Virginia's streets in gold.
"What does "a mostly-if-not-only-in-D.C. sort of story" mean? This happens everywhere they have cars and speed traps."
Not only that, but Alan Dershowitz wrote about a similar case (police ticketing driver for flashing lights to warn of speed trap) in his 1988 book "Taking Liberties."
So what exactly did Ft. Reno do with all that arsenic anyway? I find it highly suspicious that a year later, nobody is talking about what happened to the arsenic at Fort Reno, and yet the number of hamburgers being consumed in DC has risen to epidemic proportions. Coincidence? Farmers have been giving their chickens arsenic for years, so it's not that much of a move to put it in the burgers, and it would certainly go a long way towards explaining that sleepy, bloated feeling you get from eating three Five Guys burgers, a large bag of fries, and a bag of peanuts.
Mama CHUD Chinatown Sue and I are pals. Pals that sometimes do the nasty, but we are not married. We are not in love. So do I get to include her in my benefits? The inter-species thing wasn't brought up. That's why I'm asking.
PSA: Laura Sessions Stepp has a blog: www.sexreally.com.
alright, probably tired of me saying it, but that shooting wasn't in trinidad. why does the media have to be so lazy? i swear, if part of the northeast quadrant of the city is going to be written up in a positive light, no matter where it is, it's "brookland". if it's in a negative light, it's "trinidad".
the shooting took place in carver-langston.
Well, nobody's ever heard of "Carver-Langston." But everyone knows to stay the hell out of Trinidad.
Kinda like how nobody from out of the area knows WTF "Front Royal" is, so when people from Front Royal go on vacation, they tell everybody, "Oh, I'm from DC!"
People from suburbs all over the world do this. Since most folks know where the big cities are, but have never heard of all the suburbs surrounding those cities, travelers will answer where they are from with the big city they live near. We could probably say we live just outside of DC, but then we lose the added benefit of upsetting the anti-suburban crowd that thinks we all want to be them.
fine then, say the shooting happened in wonderfully generic "northeast" then. nothing wrong with that—it's lazy but at least it's correct.
noone else think its funny that the fox news article is titled "D.C. Councilman Wants
Guns on Cameras" ?
I'm a little disappointed Mr. Obama... you spent all day building up this big huge announcement about the extension of federal employee benefits to same sex partners... and then in the late hours of the evening what do you give us?!
NOTHING!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31403699/ns/politics-white_house/
Thanks a lot Mr. President...
Oh wait, I'm sorry, we got 'visitation benefits' "among others [not important enough to name]..." Jeez it's not even being covered on CNN... Only a tiny blurb on MSNBC!