Fireworks
Dear Fire Crackers:
I regret to report that the city council failed to pass an emergency
declaration to ban all remaining legal fireworks (including sparklers,
snakes, fountains, and the firecrackers that are used to celebrate
Chinese New Years) that had been proposed by the mayor. It was supported
in the council only by Councilmember Jim Graham, who introduced it, and
Councilmember Tommy Wells, who spoke in favor of it. I regret to report
that because I was hoping to blast the council for its blockheaded
stupidity in passing it, but they frustrated me by acting sensibly
instead.
In recent years, rather than concentrating on legislation and
oversight that would improve the operation of the government, the city
council has devoted a great deal of time to regulating the smallest
details of the private lives of citizens. Councilmembers are concerned
that we eat, drink, and smoke things that they disapprove of, and they
are determined to substitute their better judgment for the poor
decisions we make for ourselves. For our own good, of course. They also
disapprove of the activities that we are fond of, such as celebrating
the Fourth of July, and want to guide us in the proper path of
righteousness and deter us from doing anything pleasurable that may have
the smallest possibility of harm associated with it. They want to
legislate a world free from the slightest risk, and this complete ban on
fireworks should have fit in well with their agenda. I’m amazed —
and I have to admit pleased — that they at least postponed passing
this bill until after they held a public hearing on it. Unfortunately,
most of those who spoke against the bill opposed it because it had been
introduced as an emergency just a month before the Fourth of July,
rather than because of its contents.
DC already bans the private possession and use of any fireworks that
are any fun. My father and our next door neighbor, Bud Hoch, used to
team up to give a really great Fourth of July fireworks display every
year, followed by a late barbecue dinner. It was a nice family event
that we all enjoyed, the kind of celebration that the mayor and city
council believe must be suppressed in favor of herding everyone into a
crowd of over a hundred thousand people on the Mall, where we will be
kept hundreds of yards away from the fireworks. For our own good, of
course. Now, I like the Mall display, but it’s not the same thing as
family fireworks in the back yard. Mine is an outdated viewpoint, I
know. The modern viewpoint is that it is especially important that on
the Fourth of July we celebrate our freedom and independence only at
government-approved, regulated, and licensed events, and that the police
shut down individual, private celebrations. For our own good, of course.
Those dangerous and polluting barbecue pits will be the next to go.
Basically, it is illegal in DC to have any fireworks that fly off the
ground or that make a big noise. One of the two major arguments for the
ban on all remaining legal fireworks is that there is a lot of fireworks
noise for a few days before and after the Fourth of July. Since all the
fireworks that make a great deal of noise are already illegal, the bill’s
solution to this is to outlaw the remaining categories of fireworks, the
ones that don’t make a lot of noise. This is blatantly illogical, but
the bill’s supporters said it with straight faces, as though it made
sense. The other major argument for the ban is that all fireworks,
including sparklers, snakes, fountains, and firecrackers, are inherently
dangerous. There is no proof of that, of course. Reported fireworks
deaths and injuries include all categories of fireworks, including those
that are illegal in DC. There are always some reported sparkler
injuries, but almost all of those are minor — a child grasps a
sparkler or drops one on his foot, and gets a small burn. That’s
regrettable, but learning to handle burning objects safely is part of
growing up. Whatever we do to prevent it, some kid is going to touch a
hot stove or get a blister by keeping his hand over a candle. That’s
how kids learn not to do it again. (And it’s the kids who do it again
that we have to worry about.)
Nationally, deaths from fireworks and fires started by fireworks
averaged six per year from 2002 to 2005, and this includes any deaths of
professional fireworks handlers and fireworks manufacturers. This figure
is from the National Fire Protection Association, which campaigns to ban
fireworks, so you know it isn’t a low ball number. There is no
statistic for how many deaths occurred from the use of sparklers,
snakes, fountains, firecrackers, and the other fireworks that are still
legal in DC; I suspect because there were none. Deaths from fire, smoke,
and flames average over three thousand a year; there were 3,377 in 2002
(Statistical Abstract). The two major causes of house fires are cooking
and arson; trailing them by significant margins are candles, space
heaters, and smoking. Obviously, if the mayor’s and council’s real
concern were safety, it would be thousands of times more important to
ban cooking, candles, space heaters, and smoking than to ban fireworks.
I hesitate to mention this, for fear that the next version of the bill
will include a ban on all these things. For our own good, of course. I
doubt there’ll be a ban on cooking, the major cause of house fires,
unless key members of the administration and council are members of the
raw food movement. But I could be wrong.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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At a press conference today, Mayor Adrian Fenty and Police Chief
Cathy Lanier announced two new initiatives to address the rising tide of
violence in the District, especially in Ward 5. The first initiative
expands the District’s Focus Improvement Areas (FIA) to four
neighborhoods in the Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh police districts.
Started last fall in three neighborhoods, FIA is an effort to address
crime by “an increased law enforcement presence with support from
human service agencies and community based organizations to address
deeper societal issues facing at-risk communities.” The second
initiative creates Neighborhood Safety Zones (NSZ). By Wednesday
afternoon, this initiative had already resulted in outrage from District
residents and scathing criticism in the national media.
Under the NSZ initiative, MPD will seal off entire neighborhoods and
establish police checkpoints “for the purpose of determining whether
the operator and occupants [of a motor vehicle] have a legitimate reason
for entering the NSZ.” According to the press release, individuals
will be asked to show a valid identification and provide an acceptable
explanation for wanting to enter the NSZ. According to the mayor’s
order, the only legitimate reasons that police will accept are that: “the
person resides in the NSZ; the person is employed in the NSZ or is on a
commercial delivery; the person attends school or is taking a child to
or picking a child up from school in the NSZ; or the person is attempted
to attend a verified organized civic, community, or religious event in
the NSZ.” The mayor’s press release and mayoral spokesmen are
claiming that other reasons, such as visiting friends or relatives or
attending a party, will be accepted; but this is not true. Under the
Mayoral Order that establishes NSZs, these are the only four reasons
that the MPD may accept to allow people into forbidden neighborhoods.
The Mayoral Order also clearly states that anyone who fails to comply is
subject to arrest for failure to obey police directions. There is also
an indication that police at the checkpoints sealing off neighborhoods
may be allowed to search vehicles without probable cause. That is not
mentioned in the Mayor’s Order, but mayoral spokesmen are claiming
that it will be done.
At the press conference today, Mayor Fenty stressed that his NSZ had
been reviewed by the DC Office of the Attorney General. In response to
concerns that were raised about the legality of the initiative, Interim
Attorney General Peter Nickles is quoted as saying, “I’m not worried
about the constitutionality of it,” and, “We’re not picking on
people. If people want to sue, the courthouse is open.” The Fenty-Lanier
NSZ crime initiative is the latest public safety misstep by the District
government. In March, Lanier announced her “Safe Homes Initiative”
that was similarly contemptuous of citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights.
In April, as a result of public uproar over the plan to have police
officers knock on doors and ask to be admitted to search for illegal
firearms, that plan was quietly abandoned. Also in April, the mayor
announced the Video Interoperability for Public Safety (VIPS) program,
an initiative to link the District’s more than five thousand video spy
cameras into a single, unregulated network. At a city council hearing on
Monday before the Judiciary Committee, the administration was asked to
put VIPS on hold until it thought through the purpose of the initiative,
to reconsider whether it should create a single network of cameras, and
until it drafted acceptable regulations for all governmental video
cameras. In typical Fenty fashion, prior to today’s announcement the
NSZ initiative was shrouded in secrecy, and there was no consultation
between the administration and the city council. As Councilmember Phil
Mendelson, Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, wrote, “I
support increased police presence to reduce crime, but to stop innocent
people, require identification, and require everyone to explain
themselves is unlawful. . . . This plan is riddled with problems and it
is a reaction that will likely do more harm than good.”
Links for this item: Mayor Adrian Fenty and MPD Chief Cathy Lanier,
press release on Neighborhood Safety Zones, http://www.dcwatch.com/police/080604.htm.
Mayor Adrian Fenty, Mayor’s Order establishing Neighborhood Safety
Zones, http://www.dcwatch.com/police/080604b..htm.
Councilmember Phil Mendelson, press release on mayor’s public safety
initiative, http://www.dcwatch.com/police/080604c.htm.
Matthew Yglesias, “If It’s Good Enough for Baghdad,” http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/if_its_good_enough_for_baghdad.php.
Megan McCardle, “All Hail Comrade Fenty,” http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/all_hail_comrade_fenty.php.
Michael Neibauer and Bill Myers, “Lanier Plans to Seal Off Rough ’Hoods
in Latest Effort to Stop Wave of Violence,” http://tinyurl.com/69by36.
Allison Klein and Debi Wilgoren, “In DC’s Trinidad, Police to Set Up
Checkpoints,” http://tinyurl.com/636jld.
Sommer Mathis, DCist, “Police to Seal Off DC Neighborhoods,” http://dcist.com/2008/06/04/mpd_to_seal_off.php.
Eugene Volokh, The Volokh Conspiracy, http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_06_01-2008_06_07.shtml#1212631930,
“I see no way this could be legal.”
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Welcome to Baghdad, DC
Arthur Spitzer, ACLU of the National Capital Area, artspitzer@aol.com
Mayor Fenty and MPD Chief Lanier announced today (June 4) a “Neighborhood
Safety Zones initiative.” According to the mayor’s press release,
checkpoints will be set up “along the main thoroughfares” of
designated “high-crime areas,” and “anyone driving into a
designated area may be asked to show valid identification with a home
address in that neighborhood, or to provide an explanation for entering
the NSZ, such as attending church, a doctor’s appointment or visiting
friends or relatives.” Pedestrians, however, “will not be subject to
the public safety checks.” Welcome to Baghdad, DC, where you now may
need police permission to visit your friends and relatives or go to
church outside your own neighborhood — and where driving down a “main
thoroughfare” because it’s the best way to your destination is now
apparently a privilege reserved for police cars and the mayor’s SUV.
We’re no longer taking baby steps toward a police state, but big,
grown-up steps.
Will this draconian measure end the killings? Of course not. The
location of these roadblocks will be no secret. Anyone who wants to
enter the neighborhood with a gun can use another street, or enter on
foot, or wait a few days until the roadblock has moved to a different
neighborhood. Meanwhile, hundreds or thousands of law-abiding drivers
will have to give a good enough reason to proceed, or be turned away.
And of course the recent spike of murders will stop — that’s the
nature of a spike. Then the mayor and the Chief can claim credit and
point with pride to the “success” of this tactic, thus legitimizing
its continued use. Then when the next crime spike comes along despite
roadblocks, they’ll just ratchet up the police state one more notch.
We hope DC residents share our outrage at this “initiative.” If
you do, please let the mayor and your councilmembers (you each have six)
know how you feel. And if you live in or near a “high-crime area”
and are likely to be affected by these road blocks, feel free to contact
us at the ACLU to discuss other possible actions.
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DCPS School Reform: Can Truth Persevere?
Candi Peterson, saveourcounselors@gmail.com
I am blessed to be part of an amazing, cohesive group of parents,
students, teachers, activists, and union leaders. Our stories aren’t
told by our mainstream press. Its as though we are invisible. Somehow
our local media machine regularly spins editorials and news blitzes that
“massage the facts,” which often leaves me wondering whether truth
can persevere. For this reason, I am compelled to tell our story. I
imagine that our unlikely marriage of labor, parents and community
members is akin to the movement created by Melvin B. Tolson. Tolson was
portrayed by Denzel Washington in The Great Debaters. He united local
farmers as well as his Wiley college students in an unprecedented way to
achieve reform in labor and education. All we want like Tolson is to
challenge others to think critically, dispel stereotypes and inaccurate
information, to seek democracy, and unite all stakeholders to fight for
our right to participate in the process. Here are some of the updates of
our most recent efforts.
Last week, DCPS school counselors met to strategize on how to best
lobby the DC city council and parents in order to preserve our students’
right to a school counselor, like their more affluent peers. DC
Councilmember Phil Mendelson tells us that there is enough money to fund
school counselors in all DC public schools. The Washington Teachers
Union is sponsoring a “Get Active” petition circulated to 4200 DCPS
teachers with the help of the American Federation of Teachers. This
campaign requests that the DC city council rescind the nomination of
Hess and Wong as independent evaluators, due to their history of
relationships and other activities that suggest they may be unable to be
impartial. It is important to note that teachers, parents, and community
members were shut out of the selection process because there was no
opportunity for them to provide input during the Request for Proposal or
review the responses or qualifications of these applicants. Marc Borbely
of Fix Our Schools is making a similar effort to request the city
council to reject these nominees.
On May 30, the Council of School Officers met with the
soon-to-be-terminated DCPS principals. They invited representation from
the DC city council to request that they investigate whether these
principal firings were fair. The Council of School Officers states that
Rhee’s decisions were “arbitrary, personal, and politically
discriminatory.” While this meeting was being held last week, another
school protest was sponsored by CSONS in front of Rhee’s central
office, in which parents, students, community members, labor and
teachers from Ballou, Garrison and Green public schools chanted and held
picket signs. Come join DCPS teachers and school personnel, students,
parents, community members, and labor as we protest again on Friday June
6 and June 13, from 4-6 p.m. in front of the DCPS central office,
located at 825 North Capitol Street, NE. We are protesting because we
care about DCPS, the thousands of students who attend our schools; we
believe that real reform will happen when all of the stakeholders have
genuine input into real decision making.
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Outrageous ID Cards at DC Centers
Ted Gest, tgest@sas.upenn.edu
I had hoped that the Fenty administration would improve the
beleaguered DC Department of Parks and Recreation. Instead, I was met
this week with a new requirement, not announced in advance, that every
entrant at community centers must get a permanent ID card for entry in
the future. No rationale was offered for this at the center I visited
— just that they had been ordered to do this by DPR headquarters.
We should be encouraging more people to use these centers, not
discouraging them by burdensome ID requirements. Many community meetings
are held at these centers involving attendees who normally don’t use
the building. Will those people be turned away at the door because they
didn’t come early to get their ID card? How much money does this new
procedure cost?
I have been to public community centers all over the US, and never
have run into this. Why does our DC government want to make our centers
resemble the old Soviet Union? Will we have “watchers” in the halls
to make sure we don’t misbehave? Free the community centers!
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Let’s Make a Deal
Ed T. Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
The Capitol Police and Park Service have radios that do not work.
They are all old and obsolete systems. These organizations should cut a
deal with Sprint. Sprint is readying to unveil a citywide WiMax system
in DC this year or early next year. What better way to demonstrate the
effectiveness of this new technology and show that it will be applicable
to law enforcement organizations that are in cities as this new
technology is expanded?
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When Will the Problem of Crime in DC Really
Matter?
Tom Blagburn, MPD Ret., Lowell K. Duckett, MPD Ret., tblagburn@udc.edu
The level of interpersonal carnage that occurs on the streets of the
District of Columbia is well beyond the definition of appalling. For
decades the numbers of homicides and crime offenses have fluctuated
upward and downward. We applaud reductions and disdain the increases.
Yet for many city residents the concern for victimization and fear of
crime continue to remain relatively high. Our city seems to accept this
continuing saga of young death resulting from violence and crime as if
it were the social norm of civic expectation. The recent surge in
District’s crime and homicide problems isn’t new. Nor is it an
aberration. It is part of the geographical context of public
indifference and apathy that has been chronicled for decades. And it
always seems to be the summer pretext for more death and victimization
even when feeble attempts have been made to manipulate the data.
Crime in DC has been written about, talked about, and rationalized to
death. “More police”; “stepped-up patrols”; “get the violent
offenders off the streets”; “give youth something to do”; “take
guns out of the hands of criminals”: each represents a hollow refrain
that has essentially lost its meaning! The public has grown weary, and
disillusionment is the new platitude.
How will history portrait a city with so much wealth, intellect, and
talent that has allowed a significant segment of its young residents to
bear so much pain, suffering, and human tragedy directly resulting from
crime and murder? Perhaps historians will say: “But they did debate
lifting the District’s Gun Ban”! Sporadic student fights and gunshot
victimization, reported and unreported, appear almost every day like
scenes from an urban theater without a script or a happy ending. Each
represents the unfortunate precursor to more premature death, human
injury, and physical disability. It is very sad that the Nation’s
Capital, with all its years of practice in fighting crime and murder,
still hasn’t learned how to prevent large numbers of its children and
young adults from wounding and killing each other. But the question that
every District resident must answer is when will the problem of crime
really matter to all of us?
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In response to Jonetta Rose Barras’ posting about dog park battles
in DC [themail, June 1], non-dog owners misunderstand. “Dog parks”
are actually people parks. They promote physical health by getting
taxpaying citizens who happen to own dogs to get outside and get fresh
air, sunshine, and exercise. Dog parks promote mental health by bringing
together a group of people with common interests to enjoy each others’
company and conversation. Many times, deeper friendships grow out of
bumping into each other at the dog parks. The purposes of dog parks are
akin to those of chess playing areas (such as at Dupont Circle) and
other Department of Recreation functions that bring together people with
like interests. Dog park proponents need to promote the benefits of dog
parks to humans and not to our pets.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
DC Public Library Events, June 7-9
George Williams, george.williams2@dc.gov
Saturday, June 7, 10:30 a.m., Martin Luther King., Jr., Memorial
Library. Braille Book Club, ages 6-12. Discuss the book, A Picture
Book of Florence Nightingale by David A. Adler.
Saturdays, June 7 and 21, 1:00 p.m., Capitol View Library. Glamour
Girls Rule Book/Activity Club, ages 6 - 12. Discuss the book, Addy
Learns a Lesson: A School Story (American Girl Collection) by Connie
Porter.
Monday, June 9, 6:30 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library,
Second Floor, East Lobby. All the World’s a Stage Film Club: Reel
History, Real Lives. Young adults, adults. Film screening for the June
23 book discussion will be Chicago, directed by Rob Marshall, starring
Catherine Zeta Jones.
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Doo-Wop at the Historical Society, June 11
Ed Bruske, euclidarms@yahoo.com
Wednesday, June 11, 6:30 p.m. Doo-Wop and Early Rhythm & Blues:
DC’s Musical Past. In commemoration of June as Black Music Month, the
Historical Society of Washington, DC (HSW), in partnership with The
Washington Area Music Association (WAMA) and Beverly Lindsay-Johnson,
will host a panel discussion featuring early rhythm and blues performers
from the Washington, DC, area whose contributions made an impact on the
soundtrack of America. Panelists include Sandra Bears of The Jewels,
James “Buddy” Owens of The Velons, Reese Palmer of The Marquees,
Harold Winley of The Clovers, Diz Russell of The Legendary Orioles, Herb
Fame of Peaches and Herb, and longtime rhythm and blues radio host, Dick
Lillard as moderator. Ages 13 to adults. RSVP@historydc.org
or 383-1828.
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Certifying Green Neighborhoods, June 12
Jazmine Zick, jzick@nbm.org
Thursday, June 12, 6:30-8:00 p.m., LEED-ND and Other Certifications.
What makes a green neighborhood? What is the best way to encourage
efficient use of energy, water, and other resources, and promote greener
living for residents? A panel of developers from across the nation will
discuss their projects, how they are striving for sustainable
certifications such as LEED-ND, and other lessons learned in the field.
$12 members; $12 students; $20 nonmembers. Prepaid registration
required. Walk-in registration based on availability. At the National
Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Judiciary Square stop, Metro Red
Line. Register for events at http://www.nbm.org.
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