Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Police Check Points

You're driving through town. You reach a certain neighborhood and come upon a police checkpoint. You're questioned. Why are you coming into this neighborhood? Do you have appropriate ID? If you don't have your ID, or fail to give a reason for being there that the police officer deems "legitimate" you are turned away.

Where is this? Baghdad? Moscow under the Commie Overlords? Try Washington, D.C. Capital of the free world.

The checkpoints were put in place around a DC neighborhood called Trinidad in Northeast where there was a violent outbreak of crime. DC Police Czar Chief Cathy Lanier justifies the measure as necessary to protect the citizens and, after all, she says, people have to go through checkpoints to get on a plane or go to an event.

The crime warrants an increased police presence in the neighborhood but not the police-state-like harassment of law abiding citizen who should be able to move freely around their home city. In Baltimore, they have reduced crime without resorting to Commie tactics (according to the WaPo):

Police in Baltimore, where there has been a 36 percent decrease in homicides and shootings this year, said they attribute that to targeting violent criminals and improving relationships with members of the community.

"You lock up the baddest of the bad in part by working with people in the neighborhood," Baltimore police spokesman Sterling Clifford said. "You look to people in the neighborhood to tell you who they are and where they are."


Which leads me to ask -- can you tell the difference between DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier and the Communist?




4 comments:

lacochran said...

Wait, I know this one! The communist has better specs! And the Police Chief isn't in the suckiest I.J. movie ever.

I'm all for civil liberties but apparently there's been so much violence in that section of town that the residents are requesting it!

Scott said...

From what I've read, the residents want an expanded police presence in their neighborhood; not the Brandenburg Gate.

Matty said...

I drive through that neighborhood everyday - it's a nightmare in the day, let alone at night. I am not saying I agree with the current practices in place, but the increased presence is better at this point. You raise a good point about the tactics Baltimore Police have been using. That would mean our folks here would have to get out there and talk to people... I know plenty of really good cops in DC, but for every good one, there are many more with no ambition who ride around in the patrol cars all day long with the AC blasting and talking on the phone. But that's a completely different topic for a different post!

Scott said...

Again: increased police presence: no problem. Stopping law-abiding citizens and having a policeman pass judgment on whether they have a "right" to be in a certain neighborhood, not good.