The Examiner reports that Fenty and Lanier will continue their unconstitutional military-style checkpoints for the time being.
Meanwhile outside the “Red Zone” (the Trinidad neighborhood), in what I would guess you would call the “Green Zone”, at least eight people were shot and wounded (luckily, no fatalities), including a 12 year-old boy and a 19 year-old woman. One of the shootings was officer involved. The office shot and wounded a man after the officer was attacked with his own baton (The Washington Post).
Maybe the officer would have had backup and wouldn’t have been forced to shoot the guy if you didn’t have dozens of officers manning unconstitutional checkpoints?
In all of these incidents, a firearm was used. Guns are illegal in Washington, D.C.
If someone violates the utterly useless firearm ban, do you expect them to tell the truth to police officers at a checkpoint (a great question The Examiner asks)?
Does anyone remember when Lanier said that the city doesn’t have any gangs? Instead, they have “crews” which are distinguished from gangs because crews are created for self-defense and not for criminal enterprises (she must have never taken a college class on gangs and isn’t aware the fact that gangs are created as a means for teenagers to protect themselves and usually evolve into a group that commits crimes) (The Washington Times, American Street Gangs, p. 112).
Apparently, the “Skull Krusher Crew” (the actual name) in Prince George’s County didn’t get that memo when they robbed and beat to death a 56 year-old West African immigrant (The Washington Post).
And perhaps the greatest political cartoon ever (from The Examiner):
