Who Came Up With This Bright Idea??

Who came up with the idea for D.C. Police to check drivers in Trinidad? To have checkpoints on our city streets like we're in Iraq looking for terrorists? To question people about where they're going, and to judge whether or not they have a valid reason to be in the neighborhood? What is a valid reason? And how are the police going to determine who's telling the truth and who's not?

I think some of these government big-wigs have lost it; maybe it's the heat wave that did it, fried whatever passes for brains in their tiny heads...."Military-style checkpoint"?? "Baghdad-style"?? " Seal off D.C. neighborhoods"??

Admittedly, there is crime in Trinidad; more crime than in some neighborhoods, and less than in others. I see other neighborhoods getting foot and bicycle patrols, getting a police presence in the area to discourage those who would commit the crimes from getting a foot hold int he neighborhood. What does Trinidad get? Someone stopping you in your car when you're on the way home, asking for your id and wanting to know your private business, not because you've done anything, but to make sure you have the 'right' to be there.

I can't get over the idea of someone else deciding whether or not I have the right to be in a certain neighborhood, or driving down a certain street. That means that if I say I'm going to visit someone but the officer doesn't think I'm telling the truth, they can stop me from going through; perhaps even make me get out and be searched! I think that's ridiculous.

What kind of picture does this give to the children growing up in Trinidad? It's bad enough that they have to live in a highly stigmatized part of town, but now they get to watch their neighborhood be turned into something straight out of World War II, something akin to the Jewish Quarters. What's next, walls around it to keep the outsiders out and the ghetto people in?

In my opinion, this is being done for one reason and one reason only: money. There are quite a few houses that are up for sale in the area, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if someone had the bright idea that the houses would sell better if people saw evidence of the crime rate in the neighborhood being fought, and what better way to show people than to have them SEE the police stopping people and turning them away? It's like a huge gated community, but one that they don't have to pay for the security for, because it's paid for by the city.

I live in Trinidad, and I just don't see what it is that makes it any worse than some of the other 'drug areas' or 'trouble spots' or 'high-crime districts' in this city. I park my car in front my house every night and have yet to have it tampered with. (and I do NOT drive a hoopty) I've come in late at night; even left with my luggage at 4 in the morning to go on vacation, and no one tried to break into my apartment or my car. Sure, I see guys hanging around on the street, but I see that in downtown DC. There are homeless people in my neighborhood, but I don't see them sleeping in bus shelters like they are down by the Main Post Office and other places. Everything wrong with Trinidad is also wrong with the rest of D.C., so why have they shone the spotlight only on this small section of the city? The police department really needs to turn that spotlight around on the rest of Washington, and show how bad the crime rate really is all over the city, not just in the places where they want to look like they're doing something.