From our friends at the SoLo Piazza. . .
Last week I saw a black woman and two men (one black and one white) rob what I thought was another drug dealer at 3:30 AM in the alley last week. It was a planned event. They had Nextel phones. They sat idling for about half an hour till they did the deal.
They even had a second car doing watch for them. They blocked the victim's car in, and they took everything out of the trunk (several large suitcases). They took all his money. They threatened him with his life. They shook him down and made him take off his jacket.
They did this like they were pros with out any awkwardness or fear. The woman was an equal if not in charge of the robbery. The victim was also incredibly cool. He acted like this had happened before as well. They parked their car in such a way that they could get out to 12th or 13th and they left all the doors open so they could jump in quickly.
Once the other car that was doing watch came down the alley they jumped in their car and followed it away. We called 311 and gave the license plates of the two cars along with a description of the three robbers.
The black man wore a black bomber jacket with a Dodge Truck logo on it in white and the woman kept calling the man: "Papi" or "Poppy."
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11 comments:
This is the same alley that is adjacent to the BP gas station, and has been a hotbed of prostitution for months (see my comment to "Pimp Busters" posting, below).
So now, in addition to prostitution, it appears that the alley is being used for drug dealing and warfare between drug dealers.
Here is a question. What did the police do about this? It very odd that we pay $500,000 + plus for condo's in this area and we have to deal with this. It is almost worth it to do what some communities do and hire private security to patrol our neighborhood. It is pretty obvious that the Metro PD can not handle the amount of crime in this area.
We took these concerns and more to Ed Reiskin, the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety. I pointed out that our neighborhood can't wait for the next census.
With all the new developments, high rises, and nightlife, we need a stronger and larger police force in our PSA.
I urge Commander McCoy and Chief Ramsey to PERMANENTLY stage more officers in our neighborhood. It was a relief to see the K-9 unit and the mounted (horse) units this weekend, but we need a permanent, (not temporary) placement.
You watched this whole thing go down and called 311 after the fact? How about calling 911 before or while it was happening?! Hello?!
I didn't watch this... another resident did.
Yes, all residents have been advised that due to the climate of our neighborhood, it's best to call 911 during an emergency and 311 to report suspicious activity.
Please keep in mind that since the police are asking for detailed descriptions, it takes time to make thorough observations.
Also, remember that incidents such as this one happens in a split second. I for one, am not accustomed to such events happening before my eyes, and therefore can understand the shock factor.
I applaud anyone in our neighborhood who takes ANY kind of action to protect and uphold our safety. It is only by working together (in amounts great or small) that we will be able to emerge as a stronger and safer community.
in this case the witness made a great description of the suspects as well as their license plates! that's called above and beyond the call of duty. I applaud the witness and hope mpd will follow through on this case.
I personally feel that 311 is totally ineffective. I've called several times only to be treated like I'm just making something up. After the description, 3 black males in hooded sweatshirts, was given, I spotted 3 young guys who fit the description and called 311. The lady questioned me about why I would think they had committed a crime and was I calling because they were black? I tried to explain to her numerous times that we have had lots of trouble in this area and these guys fit the description. She said she would make a note that I had called. I watched for about 30 more minutes. Not one cop came. It was very discouraging.
And yes, the alley next to Mr. Wash has been a drug dealing haven for months. The police just seem to overlook that. I've also called 311 because my window looks right onto the alley and I have witnessed multiple transactions take place, but once again, the cops never came.
Ask for the dispatcher's name and their employee number. That should straighten out the situation because we can forward the tapes to our Deputy Mayor and other governing agencies. If they won't give it to you, note the time and date of call, because that can also be researched.
Yes, I would agree that in emergencies, the best thing to do is call 911.
We called the cops once we knew what was going down. Initially we woke up to to individual honks from a car in the alley (you know the kinds of honks you hear when a dealer or a pimp is servicing a "customer") we looked around and heard the idling car and what sounded like walkie talkies. After another single honk happened a black car approached the idiling car and left. I thought it was either a drug deal or cops. There are undercover cops in the alleys every other night (the nights when there aren't crack smokers or hookers) so after the honking stopped we went back to sleep. We then woke up twenty minutes later to what we thought was police busting somone in the alley. When we peeked through the shades the scene unfolded as I described in the post above. From the moment that we realized these were robbers or dealers and not undercover cops we called the police. The reason the detail is so sharp is because the accoustics are such that we can hear every single word somone outside says when the windows are open. It's as if they are sitting right there in the room with us. This was particularly unsettling at the moments where the woman of the bunch thought the victim was holding out on her and Poppi threatened in a very relaxed way to "fucking kill him." We only figured out that the black car was doing security when it reappeared in the alley just before the robbers bolted.
As for calling the cops. we do, often.
if we did it every time we saw something sketchy in the alley we would simply have a constant open line.
PS. I didn't realize people said "Hello?!" anymore.
Does anyone have the number for the outdated snarky slogan police?
I've had great success with 311. We've used it twice. Once for a fight that broke out in the lobby of our building and a second time after finding someone's purse and a crackpipe in our alley (not the Mr. Wash alley). Both times that we called, a car showed up within 10 minutes... then again, these were closer to P street and 14th, perhaps there's more of a willingness to respond in that area?
Very cool blog. Glad to see it -- more neighborhoods need this kind of thing. I'd like to learn more. Didn't see email address: I can be reached at smoke_dc@yahoo.com publish dcblogs .. tell me what this blog is about, why it was started .. I add it in post. Cheers
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