The Continuing Saga Of Bringing Kurt Russell Films To Life

As was mentioned yesterday, the city police will quarantine off the Trinidad neighborhood to discourage violent crimes. Some people are happy to roll over and let the police do what they will, even if that means hassling innocent people. (Which, I always thought, we all were until proven guilty. But what do I know.)

Others are not quite as pliable and are vocalizing their concerns with city officials and the police chief. Instead of making a logic-based argument, perhaps ... say ... by citing statistics of how violent crime rated dropped so dramatically in these other cities where this measure has been implemented, Chief Lanier instead turned to those tried-and-true District stand-by retorts ... whining and snark.

"Its funny," Lanier told reporters, "We put check points in place all the time for major events around federal buildings and nobody cares. Now that we want to do it to stop shootings and violence in our neighborhoods, it's as if it's something that's unreasonable. We've been doing it for years around federal facilities in the name of terrorism. If what's going on in our neighborhood doesn't classify as something that justifies this, I don't know what does."

It is funny, Chief, because nothing draws people to your point of view quite like berating and humiliating them. You might as well have used the the infamous "flag argument" ... it would have been just as effective.

The city will move ahead with this approach. And it will be done half-assed because they will meet resistance from the people of the city. And nothing will improve.

Sometimes, I hate D.C., too.

Pay-PAHS?! Vee Don't Need No Steen-keeng Pay-PAHS!

Several blog sites have picked up on this The Examiner story.

D.C. police will seal off entire neighborhoods, set up checkpoints and kick out strangers under a new program that D.C. officials hope will help them rescue the city from its out-of-control violence.

Under an executive order expected to be announced today, police Chief Cathy L. Lanier will have the authority to designate “Neighborhood Safety Zones.” At least six officers will man cordons around those zones and demand identification from people coming in and out of them. Anyone who doesn’t live there, work there or have “legitimate reason” to be there will be sent away or face arrest, documents obtained by The Examiner show.

(The Washington Post has a write-up on this story as well.)

If you think this is some belated April Fool's joke, it's not. The Office of Mayor Adrian Fenty released this press release today to address this so-called "public safety initiative".

The other bloggers have effectively covered the "slippery slope to a police state" angle of this story, so I'll let that be. I'm more concerned about precedent already set - how this plan will fail. See, the mayor, the police chief, and the interim attorney general have not done their due diligence. If they had, they would already know that once you've locked down an area from the rest of civilization, you can't unlock it. It becomes a haven for the very people you're trying to keep out. Then, before you know it, you'll have to go back into this boiling cauldron of evil to save the President, to retrieve the remote control for a super space weapon, or to find a cure for a devastating disease. And we just don't have people lying around in this city competent enough to pull off such stunts.

So please, people running this city, think of the President and shelf this idea.