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?