Online Petition for More Police in Adams Morgan Draws Heartfelt Pleas

Photo by Aude

About a week ago, I received an emailed request to sign a petition in support of increased police presence in Adams Morgan. I tend not to sign onto a neighborhood-specific petition unless it's my own neighborhood of Cleveland Park. I worry that by too quickly endorsing a cause in someone else's neighborhood, I may not fully understand how it will affect the surrounding neighborhoods. For example, if police patrols are beefed up as a result of this petition, will that take any police staffing away from, say, Mount Pleasant, Shaw, or Columbia Heights?

Still, it's not a hard and fast rule; I do my best to research an issue before appending my name, whether in cyber-ink or actual ink. The very first thing to do is to read the petition and see who's behind it, and what their reasons are for pushing for the requested action. With an online petition, that's all public, and in this case, you can read the comments left by the signers. As of today, there are six pages of signatures, totalling 279 supporters. I found that the comments make a persuasive, and in some cases, rather alarming case that the neighborhood right now is not receiving the police attention it sorely needs.

Take a look at some of these citizen reports:

There are regularly gangs of people roaming around at night vandalizing our property and doing who knows what else. I've also noticed a spike in what I can only assume to be drug dealers on 18th Street, particulary in front of the school and tennis courts at night, and sometimes in the afternoon (often near trashcans where I've seen drug drops occur). There is a very clear connection between the types of people making this trouble and the people who are patronizing some of the sketchier bars on 18th street. It would be nice if the police would actually do something about this problem instead of just watching it from the corner of 18th and Columbia.

In just three years at my current residence, my car has been broken into, my friend's car has been broken into, and my boyfriend has been assaulted and robbed. Recently, there was a girl who was robbed and got away from men who tried to throw her in the trunk of their car. All of this happened right in my neighborhood. Please help build more protection for the community of Adams Morgan. We need more patrols and video cameras in this neighborhood to ensure our safety.

We need a processing detail so as to keep more cops on the street as opposed to when an arrest is made it does not take the cop out of action for the night...

Last week I literally saw an officer hiding behind a payphone. Some guy on the street went over and told him he just missed a huge fight and pointed him in the direction of the fight. The officer literally waved him away. I can't say that gives me faith in our police, although, that said, if I were the officer alone on the street, I might hide behind a payphone as well. What does it take for our government to pay attention? How bad does it have to get?

As someone whose second floor bedroom faces Kalorama about 5 houses off of 18th Street, I can tell you that those times are like the Wild West on the best of nights. Impromptu "parties" on our front steps (a private home, not an apartment house or condo, require us to get out of bed almost every weekend to run people off. A simple slow moving vehicle patrol which stops to query loitering people who go a long way towards stopping this intolerable situation.

Clean Team Pushes Recycling in Adams Morgan

For many years DC has had curbside recycling pickup, but if you're out in public, what do you do with your recyclable bottles and cans? If you happen to be in Unity Park in Adams Morgan, the answer is simple: Toss them in the recycling bins at the public park.

The Adams Morgan Partnership Business Improvement District (BID) and Adams Morgan ANC1C have teamed up to install not one but two new recycling cans at Unity Park, on Columbia Road, NW at Euclid and Champlain Streets. Look for the bright blue cans next to the standard black trash cans. Both of these cans were paid for and installed by the DC Department of Parks and Recreation.

The recycling bins will be maintained by the "Clean Team" of the Adams Morgan Partnership BID.  The Clean Team is comprised of four trainees and one supervisor working through a contract with the Gospel Rescue Mission located in Chinatown. The Clean Team works from 7am to 3pm, seven days a week including all holidays, collecting an average monthly total of 50,000 pounds of trash and cleaning up illegally placed posters, stickers, graffiti, etc. They also remove discarded furniture, broken glass, repair clogged drains, clean up leaves and fallen trees, water trees during the warm months, and report broken street lights and signage. The Clean Team is supported in part by a grant from the DC Department of Small and Local Business Development.

Additional recycling cans are scheduled to be placed along Columbia Road, NW in Adams Morgan in the coming year.

Beware the Adams Morgan McDonald's Bathroom Bouncer

The blogger Chele relates this story about how she couldn't use the bathroom in the Adams Morgan McDonald's because she didn't have a receipt. Even though her boyfriend was in the process of paying for her meal. Even though she had to go really badly. Even though the cashier said she could use the bathroom. The bathroom bouncer at the Adams Morgan McDonald's at 2481 18th Street, NW blocked Chele from using that bathroom. Here's her saga:

Seeing as my partner had already ordered and was about to pay, I made my way to the restrooms past a tall African-American gentleman sitting in a booth, while in another table a woman was texting on her phone. I could never have predicted what happened next.

Bathroom Bouncer: You, hey, what do you think you’re doing?

Me: I was hoping to use the bathroom…

BB: Well you can’t. You got a receipt?

This is when I notice that the guy is not some weirdo trying to start a conversation, but a rent-a-cop hired to keep the bathroom safe from tiny bladders like mine.

Me: Not on me, my boyfriend is paying as we speak (as I point to the suited up individual at the register, who turns, smiles and continues to talk to the woman at the counter).

BB: Well YOU can’t go. You don’t have a receipt yet. So you can’t!

Me: Um ok, I mean he’s paying right now…

Cashier: Yes, she’s with him, let her go. 

BB: Well I don’t give a shit, I’m not gonna let you go anywhere. AND DON’T YOU LISTEN TO ANYONE ELSE, I SAY WHAT GOES!

You can read more on Chele's blog. The Adams Morgan McDonald's has pay toilets, so one wonders why they'd need a bathroom bouncer anyway. Perhaps the pay mechanism was broken.

Before you pop by that McDonald's you might want to read some of the reviews on Yelp (yes people review McDonald's) that report: "Service was awful - rude and condescending," "Service is painfully slow and rude," and "On three different occasions I've seen a fight between two employees."

Lovely.

Memorial to Parrot, Dog Shot and Killed in Adams Morgan

A photographic memorial to Parrot, the dog who was shot and killed by a police officer in Adams Morgan during the Adams Morgan Day Festival.

Candlelight Vigil for Parrot, Dog Shot in Adams Morgan, Tonight

Drawing by E. E. Piphanies

There will be a candlelight vigil tonight, September 16th, at 8pm for Parrot, the dog who was shot by a police officer in Adams Morgan. This tragic event has opened and saddened the eyes of many Washingtonians, and has caused many area residents to speak out about Parrot's death, both against and for the police officer's shooting of Parrot.

Here are the details from the Candlelight Vigil for Parrot Facebook group:

Time and date: Sept. 16, 8pm - 8:30pm

Location: 2311 18th Street, NW

This will take place outside. This is not a Lucky Dog sponsored event. This is a vigil for those who were touched by Parrot in life and in death to mourn his loss. 

We very much want this to be a time to focus on all the positive and happy moments of Parrot's life. We are asking people not to bring signs with any political messages. People are welcome to bring flowers, etc. to place at the site.

Please do not bring dogs to this event. 

If you take a photograph at tonight's vigil that you want to share, please email that photo to us at photoin@mailcan.com and we may post it on All Life Is Local.

Thanks to Prince of Petworth for spotting this.

Adams Morgan Dog Shooting Justified, Says a Dog Lover

The coverage of the shooting of a dog by a police officer during the Adams Morgan Day Festival last Sunday has generated a lot of attention -- and condemnation. Most reports have been sympathetic to the dog, calling the police officer's actions unjustified and cruel.

But was the shooting justified? One dog lover and pet store employee thinks so. The blogger "Confessions of a Pet Store Employee" writes:

This officer was in a crowd of people, with a dog he did not know, that was trying to bite him. When he got to the realization that this dog which was acting aggressively and had already bitten one dog and at least one person might get loose in a crowd of people that included small children, he made the decision to throw the dog down a stairwell.

This accomplished three things. The officer tried to non-fatally injure the dog enough to back the dog down. It got the dog far enough away from the officer in one movement that the dog could not bite him immediately. It gave the officer enough distance to judge if the dog was going to come back aggressively and the distance to take a shot if need be, and the dog was down a stairwell, so he wouldn't be shooting into a crowd of people. That's some damn good fast thinking. 90% of us wouldn't have been able to do that. He neutralized a threat without harming innocent bystanders. Just what he was trained to do. Good job officer.

You can read the entire article here.

Thanks to DC Blogs and Confessions of a Pet Store Employee for spotting and sharing this.

Washington Tweets: Special Dog Shot Edition

Drawing by E.E. Piphanies

Washington tweets. A lot. The Washington Tweets column is a collection of the most interesting, recent Washington-area tweets. These tweets reveal a candid and fascinating portrait of what is on our collective minds: Twitter gives a snapshot of what we're doing, thinking and hoping for as a group. Washington Tweets is Washington in the raw. Bill Adler tweets at @billadler.

This is a special edition of Washington Tweets, focusing just on the sad and unfortunate incident yesterday in which a police officer shot and killed a dog at the Adams Morgan Day Festival.

Police Kill Dog in Adams Morgan

Graphic from Vectors.

Update:  Here is an eyewitness account of the shooting posted on DCist, which includes a link to a photo taken of the dog, Parrot. The photograph was taken just moments before Parrot was shot and killed by a DC Police Officer:

Photo I took maybe a minute before he preceded to pick up the dog, throw it down the stairs and shoot it. It was by far the most disturbing thing I have ever seen in my life. Click here for that photo.

DCist is reporting that the police have shot and killed a dog in Adams Morgan. The shooting occurred during the Adams Morgan Day Festival when a poodle and rottweiler (some reports say it was a pitbull) started attacking each other. Apparently, after the poodle and  rottweiler were restrained by both bystanders and the dogs' owners, the police ordered the rottweiler (or pitbull) released and then shot it.