Comments on: Chief Lanier Deserves Credit For Drop In Homicides

By: T.Cooper

T.Cooper — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:39:41 +0000

I TOTALLY AGREE W/TRUTH HURTS DATED OCTOBER 14TH,2009 I AM A VICTIM OF A 6TH DISTRICT POLICE SHOOTING OF ONE OF MY SON.HE WAS GUNNED DOWN IN 1995 SO I FEEL YOU.I ALSO AGREE WITH EXCONECON YOU ARE TREATED THE WAY YOU R BCAUSE OF YOUR SKIN AND WHERE U LIVE.I TELL ALL OUR BROTHES TO BE CAREFUL IN THE WARD WHERE WE LIVE WHICH IS 7 AND 6TH DISTRICT PERCIENT.I WOULD RATHER BE AMONG THUGS THEN MOST OF THESE DIRTY COPS AND THAT IS A SHAME THAT WE AS CITIZENS AND RESIDENTS HAVE 2 FEEL THIS WAY,CATHY LANIER I KNOW THAT YOU SAY IN SOME OF THE MEETINGS THAT I HAVE ATTENDED TO LET YOU KNOW WANT YOUR POLICE OFFICERS ARE DOING ILLEGAL BUT IF THEIR SUPERVISORS AND LT. AND WATCH COMMANDERS CANNOT COME TO THE PHONE WHEN U CALL WITH A COMPLAINT WHAT MAKE ME BELIEVE SOMETHING WILL BE DONE TO EMAIL YOU?I AM INFORMING YOU NOW THAT THERE IS SOME ILLEGAL WAYS AND TACTICS THAT 6TH DISTRICT OFFICERS ARE DOING

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:41:33 +0000

The only thing Cathy Laneir deserves is a pink slip. How this unabashed hater of the US can continue to be Chief of police in DC is just simply amazing.

By: Carl from Chicago

Carl from Chicago — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:58:47 +0000

And this drop in crime has accompanied the Supreme Court's erasure of a 32-year ban on private ownership of handguns ... elimination of the strictest gun control law in the nation.

Good news.

By: ROM

ROM — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:55:42 +0000

LANIER respsonsible for ANYTHING "crime" related? AHHHHH-HAAA-HAA-HAaaaa- QUIT! UR Killin me! HAAAA-HAAA-haaaaaa... too much! HAaaa-haaaa...

Try "MORE GUNS, LESS CRIME"!

By: Borderstan Crime: A Review of the Year’s First 9 Months « Borderstan

Borderstan Crime: A Review of the Year’s First 9 Months « Borderstan — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:38:09 +0000

[...] city and police department work on the calendar year. For example, you have probably read that the number of murders on a year-to-date basis in DC is down. (DC’s murder rate is down this year and much lower [...]

By: ExConEcon

ExConEcon — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:47:38 +0000

DC4Life- These are my experiences. There have been a few cops who seemed to care at first, but if you come to my neighborhood at any given point during the day or night, you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. I don't for a second believe that their jobs aren't hard or even puts their lives on the line. It's just that the ones I've seen in my neighborhood are wasteful, lazy fucks, who prefers to sleep in their cars or talk to the teenage girls. They bully and intimidate those who they can. The reason I know who the dealers are is exactly the same reasons I'm certain the cops do as well, because it happens out the open, right in front of them. It doesn't take a master sleuth to figure out that a gang of teenage boys, spending 14 hours in front of a house, drinking, gambling, and making "exchanges" in the open, aren't doing anything else. I've explained to you what happens when you tell on the dealers. The ones who tell the dealers on you are the fucking cops. So it's not that I don't a no-snitch policy, it's that I prefer to practice a no-dying one instead. I applaud that you can cooperate and feel closure for any crime against you. The reason I've lived in this neighborhood, without even having any of my family members or self involved in any crime or crime against us, is because I was raised well and I do the same for my three kids. So, please preach all you want, I'm not convinced because you haven't lived through it. Jason- thanks. As for the the theory I mentioned, it's just that. It would be almost impossible to prove. As you call tell, I'm not a fan of the police but I will give credit where it due but only if it's actually due. I prefer Lanier than Ramsey, any day of the week.

By: DC4LIFE

DC4LIFE — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:03:26 +0000

ExConEcon - I find it very odd that "every" cop is flirting and/or causing you problems, please I am sure there are some bad apples as every department has but you have many officers that work hard every day where you live to try and make a difference, the problem is the police aren't responsible for raising the children yet blamed when something goes wrong. As far as COPS being lazy and LAZY F... well your wrong again please don't lump everybody in one category. Many changes were made in the department and "if" your issue is actually a valid issue then you should know to take appropriate steps and trust me if the officer did "anything" wrong he/she will be handled possibly terminated. Either way many officers are dedicated to patroling your streets. If you "KNOW" the dealers turn them in call the tip line, it starts with the community your just another person that witnesses crime yet won't talk...Guess you follow the no snitch policy well that doesn't work wait until its your wife/child/loved one killed and you want somebody to talk yet they wont. Oh and yet I do live in the city and in an area that much worse then you describe, I have been a victim and YES I did cooperate with the police and YES it lead to closure for me as well as locking the fool up so he couldn't harm anybody else...

By: Jason Cherkis

Jason Cherkis — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:18:26 +0000

You can file a compliant with the OPC. And yes mediation is usually offered. But it doesn't usually end there.

http://policecomplaints.dc.gov/occr/site/default.asp

To address one other point, if murders were way up, we'd all blame the police. So it stands to reason that Lanier and Co. do deserve credit when murders are way down. Especially when unemployment numbers in D.C. are huge, drug use is actually down according to one monthly court report, and the city's schools are still a mess not to mention CFSA.

What's the murder rate for Baltimore or Philly? Those are two similar cities. I bet our murder rate is a lot lower.

By: ExConEcon

ExConEcon — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:16:49 +0000

I've complained in the past before and to no avail. I get targeted by the cops because I don't look the part. I don't look black and usually am dressed in semi-formal attire, driving an Acura in an area that has heavy drug activity. I know who the drug dealers are and see them openly trading. I don't understand why the cops who are stationed there, choose not to stop this but rather harass me. This think I'm a "buyer" because I don't fit the description of a resident. Friends say move, but I can't afford to and it's convenient for me. Besides, the only ones harassing me are the cops. It's just such a screwed up system. Cops are lazy fuckers, as ignorant and racist as you can imagine. I get it from both Black and White cops, but the worst always comes from the white cops who treat me like shit and constantly talk down to me. And they are too afraid of the actual drug dealers (15 year-old kids) to do anything to them. Whom should I complain to? Other cops? After reading about the tactics used in Fenty's administration, I would honestly be scared for my life if I did this. The last time my neighbor called the cops on some drug dealers making too much noise in front of place, the cops came, the kids went away. The next day, her car window was busted and car was keyed. It seems that the cops told them who called and were pissed that they had to come and do their fucking jobs.

By: Ward 5

Ward 5 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:30:36 +0000

- Jason, it wouldn't make much of a difference (as i've filed one before) - the best they'll offer is mediation...

By: Jason Cherkis

Jason Cherkis — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:18:34 +0000

ExConEcon: I hope you filed a complaint with the Office of Police Complaints for the incident during an AHOD.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:24:55 +0000

Echoing Tony's comments, I continue to be stunned that any reporter could write about homicide rates in a vacuum. MPD will naturally take credit for a reduction in crime, but when there's an increase, point to the national trend. It is the job of anyone else analyzing crime to point out this most basic fact of statistics. When trying to understand the causes of a phenomenon, you need a control. When you test a new drug, you cannot simply give the drug to a group of people and see what happens. You need to compare the results against another group of people who are given a placebo. In the case of crime, the "control group" is the rest of the country. If you want to argue that your efforts to reduce crime have been effective, then the only practical measure is to compare crime against other cities nationwide. Homicide rates have been down in most cities in 2009. This NY Times article discusses this fact, so it's not like it should be a mystery to anyone. What this means is that the specific efforts that Lanier has implemented may or may not have anything to do with what's happened in DC. At the very least, a thoughtful analysis would need to compare the decline in homicdes in DC to the average decline nationwide. The NY Times article says that most cities have seen between a 7% and 22% reduction in all major crimes (not just homicides). It may very well be that DC is doing better than other cities, but nobody has bothered to actually do an analysis to see where we fare -- rather, they just say "crime is down so it's working." Unfortunately, there are many factors that contribute to crime other than local policing strategies and if you want to understand how your local efforts are working, you need to compare the results to other places.

By: ExConEcon

ExConEcon — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:14:32 +0000

Freakanomics proposed an interesting theory on the drop in the US crime rate during the mid 90s. They said that it was a result of Roe V. Wade and the legalization of abortion. The people who tend to commit these sorts of crime simply were never born as a result. The authors gave great stats and made a convincing argument. The heads of Police departments across the country took credit for this phenomenal drop, offering very different and often, conflicting strategies as to how this was accomplished. I am not a proponent of abortion, but I thought it was a fascinating theory and served as a better explanation that what was on the immediate surface. I don't think the abortion theory will work here to explain the 40% drop in the District, but I do not believe it was police activity that did this either. I live in a high risk area in NE and witness a ton of polic presence and activity daily. The problem is that they aren't policing, rather, they are often flirting with the teenage girls in my neighborhood, chatting up with each other, and I have witnessed on more than a few occasions, them sleeping in their vehicles. Crime has not decreased in my area. I do not feel any safer and when they did the AHOD thing, I, being of mixed heritage, was singled out for driving in an "all-black" area as the officer called it. When I stated that lived in the area, the white officer in charge was in disbelieve and said he didnt' think I could live there, I didn't look tough enough. He assumed that I must be there to buy drugs, even though he had my license verifying my home address. He searched my car and kept me waiting 20 minutes, hurling various accusations and insults. I was calm and tried to be reasonable, but got angry and finally claimed that I would contact an attorney if they needed to keep me longer. This motivated him to speed up the process and I was let through. I don't see how a drug dealer or thug would purposely drive into a police road block. But at CP argues, AHOD was never a success either, so I'm preaching to the choir.

By: Truth Hurts

Truth Hurts — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:37:05 +0000

Do they count police shooting deaths in their homicide stats? How is MPD doing on reducing the number of homicides due to MPD shootings?

By: RT

RT — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:07:29 +0000

Lets face it...the drop in the homicide rate probably has very little to do with any initiatives the police department makes. Homicide rates nation wide tend to go up and down together across the board while these police departments are using massively different strategies. For instance in the 1990's Boston and NYC both saw massive drops in the homicide rate white NYC used the broken windows theory and Boston funneled money to after school programs. Were either of these the real reason the rates dropped? Probably not since homicides nation wide dramatically fell.