dc: there's no place like home

after 4days away from dc over independence weekend i returned to my stomping-ground. the house baron of groceries i decided to go down the street for food and found myself walking out into the path of a police pursuit. watching at least 4cop cars circling my block and several others i suddenly was in the path of a footcop who shoved me into a parking meter instead of going around. i nearly lost it, remembering why so many of us don't trust them, but he was moving fast enough that even my words wouldn't have caught up with that asshole. the police presence has been seriously strong in my neighbourhood recently. last month, before the us supreme court reversed the gun ban in dc, 12people were murdered with an 8block radius of my apartment. the trinidad neighbourhood (just 3blocks away) played stage to a majority of these deaths. the cops were dumbfounded. not knowing how to slow the violence, dc cops set up roadblocks around trinidad, stopping every driver+wanderer for identification to gain access into the area. for 6days these roadblocks rerouted anyone without a trinidad address into the hood and forced them around. returning from a trip to home depot one evening, i skipped the west virginia ave option due to back up and decided to take montello, which has often proven faster in the past. i was stopped by 2officers who directed me to pull behind a toyota corolla who's driver was being pulled from his car. after the typical license+registration questions the cop told me to i had to go around the neighbourhood to get home. i explained to the cop that i know trinidad very well and frequent the neighbourhood on foot from time to time. he said something like 'we're asking you around for your own safety,' which is when i got angry and told the cop to let me through. 'you can't block public roads,' i yelled. he obliged, clearly knowing they were in the wrong. the corolla was still road side and the driver had found himself sitting on the curb while the police searched his trunk. trinidad was the quietest i had ever seen it that night. a few people were gathered by a tree just past the community center that had become memorial to one of the victims; a stuffed bear, candles+flowers @ its base, signs+cards hung all the way to it's branches. the only other movement on the street were a few cops, who all eyed me a little too hard as i passed, sitting on penn and 4more as i exited the neighbourhood and made my way home. about a week after the roadblocks dissappeared this article was released in the washington post: Group Sues to Halt Police Checkpoint Program By Del Quentin WilberWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, June 20, 2008; 3:08 PM A civil rights group filed a federal lawsuit today to halt the D.C. police department's new checkpoint program, saying that the screening of motorists is unconstitutional. The Partnership for Civil Justice filed the suit on behalf of four District residents against what they called the illegal use of "suspicionless seizures and roadblocks." The plaintiffs are seeking to turn the suit into a class action on behalf of all who are affected by the program. The suit says that the plaintiffs want to stop the police before the use of checkpoints goes beyond the Trinidad area of Northeast Washington, where they were run for a six-day period earlier this month. At random times during that span, police stopped vehicles at a checkpoint and questioned drivers to ensure they had what authorities called "a legitimate purpose" to be coming into the area. "The District's military-style roadblock system was deployed, in part, to give the appearance that the government is addressing this deeply felt need," the suit states. "But it is neither constitutional, nor effective." Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier and interim Attorney General Peter Nickles crafted the checkpoint strategy after a series of shootings in the neighborhood. Nickles has said that he thoroughly vetted the law and was confident it would survive a court challenge. But at a hearing this week, some D.C. Council members said they had concerns about its legality. D.C. police put a checkpoint on Montello Avenue on June 7 and ran it randomly over six days, allowing only residents and those with legitimate business there to enter. Officers reported that more than 700 vehicles were allowed through and 46 were turned away. Lanier proclaimed the program a success, noting that no shootings took place in Trinidad while it was in operation. She has not ruled out setting up more checkpoints in what the police call "Neighborhood Safety Zones." But she has provided no details. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Caneisha Mills, William Robinson, Linda Leaks and Sarah Sloan. All said that they were stopped at the checkpoint. The American Civil Liberties Union, which monitored some of the activity, said at times that nine of 10 motorists were being denied entry. The ACLU also has been considering a lawsuit, officials said. with the gun ban gone, crime is expected to go down. i guess government officials figure we'll all be too scared to act up on each other since we'll all be carrying guns for protection from each other. seems to me we finally can have all the guns we need to protect ourselves from our government - which was the purpose of the 2nd amendment to begin with.