Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Juveniles Cruising the 'Hood

As details begin to unfold, we are reposting this story. It turns out that two similar incidents occurred and the outcomes varied slightly. Our thanks to MPD for providing the clarifications. . .

On Sunday, Officer Pepperman made a traffic stop on a car displaying stolen tags. There were three passengers in the car - and all attempted to flee. The driver and the front seat passenger got away, but the rear passenger was caught. Upon returning to the car, the officer saw a handgun, ski mask, and glove sitting in the back seat in clear view. The attorney general decided not to charge the juvenile with the gun, however, he has been charged for possession of marijuana.

About a month ago, a similar incident occurred. A resident called police to note a suspicious vehicle behind a school. Officer Ross responded, and followed the vehicle while calling for backup. As soon as the suspicious vehicle pulled over, all passengers (three, again) fled on foot. A foot chase by Ross and his backup ensued. Upon search of the car, three guns were found.

Officer Ross and others on the force completed the necessary paperwork and required administrative duties to hold the juvenile, but the next day, the U.S. Attorney's Office (juvenile division) "no papered" the arrest and released the juvenile. No further explanation was given at the time of this posting.

Officers Pepperman and Ross - we commend you and your fellow officers for responding to these calls and keeping our neighborhood safe. To the resident that called in the vehicles - thank you - you may very well have thwarted something far worse.

Now is not the time to lose faith, now is the time for continued vigilance. Stay alert, and stay involved.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good police work and then charges are dropped. Isn't there anything we can do to find out why?

There is definitely something up with juvenile crime lately, as we can see from the crime reports.

For what it is worth, while my BF and I were entering our garage in the alley near 10th and P, a group of juveniles threw a rock at us.

Then two mornings ago like around 9am we interupted a black transvestite prostitute with blond hair and white shoes while servicing her john. I think this is the same guy/girl that the a judge keeps letting out on his own recognizance.

Anonymous said...

If somebody knows the name of the ADA that droped these charges I would be glad to write a letter to them.

Anonymous said...

what's wrong with the dc attorney's office? this is a gross injustice to our neighborhood.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand. How can they have put these kids back on the street if they had three guns in the car?

The context here is that there is a wave of armed robberies in the area beinng perpetrated by a small group of young African American men and women. So you find a small group of African American young men driving around with guns and let them go?! That's just bloody brilliant.

1. Possession of a firearm is supposed to be illegal in DC.
2. There is no normal reason to drive around with guns in the car.

I've been hearing that a lot of cases are dismissed / charges dropped by the arraignment judges / prosecuting attorneys. Apparently prostitution, possession of illicit drugs and carrying around firearms isn't considered to be a worth dealing with.

We have prostitues like soliciting Crystal Johnson (caucasian, bleach-blond, in recent months puffy and red-faced) on the corner of 11th and O NW and soliciting every day alll day. I'm told she has been arrested for prostitution "thousands" of times.

She and her compatriots are turning tricks behind my house on O St. The Johns are ALWAYS in cars from MD or VA. These women do not look healthy.

When I'm walking my 2-year old daughter to day-care we get to see them turning tricks. Very nice.

The thing is these women are arrested hundreds or thousands of times, just like these kids with guns. And nothing changes. They are back the next day. Or within hours.

I can only assume that

1. Prosecution isn't taken seriously
2. There is no mandatory rehab program for prostitutes or if there is it doens't work and/or is flouted
3. The Johns love our neighborhood so much that they will commute in from the burbs

I think the drugs, prostitution and robberies are probably intermingled conflating factors. Rob/turn tricks to get cash for drugs.

Something is seriously wrong with this system.

Anonymous said...

I can agree and vouch for Brian (especially since we are neighbors). For example, this past weekend I cleaned up in our back alley 23 used condoms. It appears they had been deposited there over the past several weeks. While I am hopeful that the change in weather may decrease the use of our back alley for prostitution, it is clearly a problem in our neighborhood.

Anonymous said...

Prostitution is a problem in our alley, also. I wonder if a local TV news crew would be interested in staking out one of these alleys? They could catch some great footage of suburban MD/VA men soliciting prostitution. Perhaps that would curb the demand, if not the supply problem.

Anonymous said...

Interesting idea. On the other hand, the wrong kind of media attention can also have the effect of bring more unwanted activity into the alley by informing people where they can go for prostitution. In the past, we've noticed upticks in prostitution following news coverage of the same in Logan.

Anonymous said...

Two women were mugged at gun point yesterday evening (12/11)around 10th & O Street at about 6:30 p.m. walking home from the Giant.

The muggers were three young black men between the ages of 16 - 20 yrs. and they were dressed in all black. One had a silver revolver, he was medium colored skinned, about 5'9", and wore a 3/4 length black puffy jacket with light
colored fur trimming the hood and a black knit hat. One of the others was maybe 5'11" with darker skin...again dressed in all black.

Please continue to exercise caution around our neighborhood. These three guys definitely knew what they are doing and appeared to be plotting the scenario before hand. As the women approached 10th & O St. the one with the revolver peaked around the corner and walked back towards his friends hiding behind a building farther up on 10th. The three
culprits were not aggressive, pulled out the gun and asked us to hand over our purses, when finished told the women to walk away and if we looked
back they would shoot. Later that evening when we spoke to a
resident that lived on O St. around 10th he thought he saw these 3 guys fitting our description around 4:00 PM. He described them as lingering
around and appearing to be up to no good. It is my suspicion that these are the three boys/guys that have committed some of the previous armed muggings.