Police Week Ends Tomorrow In Penn Quarter!

I heard more sirens than normal over the weekend with a side helping of Harley Davidson rumble.

I normally have respect for police officers, but year after year my respect erodes with this event. In prior years, I’ve encountered loud and even drunken crowds of (uniformed) officers near Judiciary Square and in the metro system. This year it was their blatant disregard of traffic/parking laws–they parked in every illegal corner they could find, including the Flexcar and Zipcar spots near WMATA.

I agree with 4:47. The disregard of the law this past weekend is pretty unbelievable. I noticed areas in parking garages becoming beer gardens with the resulting refuse left behind. This doesn’t happen during sporting events or concerts. I just don’t get it and it’s not acceptable to disregard the laws you enforce for your own police party.

Yes, I have to agree that they parked wherever they felt like parking.

I was more surprised with how many dressed like thugs…. Not a good image to project and earn respect.

You would think they would know better.

Agreed. My respect is decreasing for them, though they appear to be a bit better than last year when they parked in my parking lot so noone could leave and enter and urinated on my building. I too was out of town this weekend which was nice not to have to deal with this.

The sheer amount of disregard for laws like parking and public drinking is a little disturbing. Though, its not much worse than an average weekend evening at the FOP on 4th Street watching them illegally park and do what they do.

Let’s plan our own party once they leave and see how long it takes for the cops to come break it up.

i was not impressed at all.

i was picking up my in-laws from DCA, and there were a ton of copsut at the airport. they all have this little badge thingee hanging around their necks, but they were wearing clothes that looked like ‘thug-wear’.

my foreign in-laws were pretty surprised.

they surmised that american law enforcers were going undercover to find and kill ‘the terrorists’.

pretty sad, but hey. we have no idea what these folks are up against, and from where they come.

they are cops because they understand the mentality of thugs.

so.. it seemed like they were playing costume day, or perhaps they were just the thugs that got out, and were going back to their roots.

either way, not a cool image to portray to all the tourists that see them perambulating through the nation’s capitol.

Ditto all comments about appalling behavior, drunkenness, etc.

But the thing that really tees me off is the propensity of these visiting cops to drive at high speeds, in caravans, with their sirens blaring. Why does a cop from, say, Peoria, have the right to drive with a siren on in our city? Is there any hope of getting DCMPD to enforce laws and bring order to this gathering? It’s like spring break for cops…really disgusting.

What really drives me crazy is the fact that, apparently, it is impossible to transport bagpipes from one place to another without PLAYING THEM, preferably accompanied by drums (which also cannot be transported without banging on them), even at 2 in the morning. I don’t hear the firetrucks that drive around here all night long. Bagpipes, on the other hand, drive me completely bats**t.

Off-topic…

Any news as to when construction will begin on the Church/condos at 10th and G?

Did they have a permit to block 5th street last night? They parked a van in the middle of the street in front of the church and loaded it in slow motion.

Several cars had to make u-turns, causing many near collisions?

The visiting “police” stood in the middle of the street with their band paraphanallea, totally oblivious to the rest of the world around them.

I am sure they spend plenty of money at the Pub on the corner of 5th and H, but as we passed by several neighborhood restaurants on Sunday, they were surprisingly empty. So maybe they don’t spend THAT much money here.

Perhaps they can go elsewhere in the future.

Perhaps we should send this thread to the memorial staff who organizes the annual event. I have no problem with these gatherings, but these officers should know they represent their cities and their profession. Peeing in the street, throwing up on our side-walks, illegally parking in our neighborhood, and disrupting the peace is no way to act, especially when you are here to remember the colleagues you’ve lost during the year. It’s just disrespectful to everyone involved.

Construction update on 10th and G: The current church is scheduled to be raized in June. The area will be fenced off for a period of a year, and construction is scheduled to start June 2008 (PNHoffman is waiting out the condo market). The project will take almost 2 years to complete — and when finished, will be the first green residence in PQ.

I agree with Andy in PQ. Anyone have contact information for the organizers? I went to the policeweek.org website and found info so maybe we just inundate the head honcho with messages complaining?

Supposedly here are the people in charge of Police Week.

http://policeweek.org/contacts.html

I may send them an email later this week expressing my concerns.

What i’d love to see if the MPD letting the neighborhood residents enforce the DC laws since the MPD is clearly on vacation during police week. Nothing i’d love to do more than give out parking tickets and tickets for public intoxication. Last time I looked, the police aren’t immune from the laws.

Does someone have contact information for the Law Enforcement Memorial staff? Know how to forward this thread? Could the GPLiving bloggers do that? I think it would be enlightening and hopefully helpful for the LEMemorial folks to know what an awful impact their events have on the community, and how their constituency is perceived.

Somewhere between 4 and 4:30 this morning I was awaken by some sort of cheer…2, 4, 6, 8, who do we appreciate….and a cheer and a loud roar, followed by the reving up of motorcycles.

We really need to forward this to someone.

the lead story on Channel 4’s local news tonight was about a DC police week complaint sent in to Chief Lanier by a local downtown resident. there was also a mention that a resident videotaped an incident (don’t know if it was the same one) and hung a sign out their window saying it could very well appear on YouTube. could be a gem of a video!

Channel 4 showed Chief Lanier at a podium making a public statement that the MPD was looking into the incident.

I forwarded this thread to the police week organizers and copied Tommy Wells office and Commander Groomes in the 1st District. Commander Groomes has already gotten back to me saying that her office is going to address these complaints.

Is everyone serious about this? We have the honor of hosting these men each year for their annual rememberance service and residents have the audacity to complain about sirens and bagpipes?

I think it has been remarkably tame with the exception of the Irish Channel (I have not been over to Irish Times).

Penn Quarter should be this lively every night. If I did not expect noise and the occasional drunk I would live on Macarthur.

I know everyone is upset about double standards but I don’t mind a town full of drunken cops for a few days. See you next year fellas.

olesh: Walking around last night, I tend to agree with you. I think a lot of the complaints are location specific (ie, Irish Channel).

Aside from hearing a few additional sirens, I personally haven’t had any problems. Of course, I wasn’t aroun this past weekend.

Olesh: There is a balance between honoring these people and having them follow the rules and laws that apply to everyone in DC.

I do not think an occasional siren or bagpipe is a problem. However, it becomes a problem when the cops decide to play them at 2 or 3 am.

Having a drink at a bar is not a problem, however, when the bar starts flowing into the street, its a problem that should be quickly rectified.

Parking in a spot along our neighborhoods streets is not a problem. But when the cops illegally park their cars and vans in every conceivable spot in our neighborhood it is a problem.

If this was a group of students or neighborhood persons doing this, there is little doubt they would have been fined or arrested. But since its cops, we look the other way. Our neighborhood has enough problems with vagrants and parking issues (I wish I was a cop so I could get an ‘official business’ sticker and park where I wanted).
I think it is great to see these cops in DC. But their disrespect of the laws they are supposed to uphold and the general disrespect of the neighborhood concerns me. While Police Week may have been a welcome thing in this neighborhood in the past, I believe as this neighborhood becomes even more residential it will become less and less so.

here’s the link to the NBC 4 story:

Police Accused…

Wow. BTW – a quick scan of youtube didn’t turn up anything.

The story also made today’s post.

And here’s another story on NBC4 this morning that includes segments of the video.

A couple years ago, I observed officers from Glen Cove NY driving about 70-80 mph on Constitution Ave, swerving around cars, obviously trying to make it to the police memorial for some ceremony for which they were late. They almost hit a couple pedestrians, and certainly scared everyone on the street that morning (a Sunday).

If everyone has seen at least some misconduct, this is a bad situation. Glad that the authorities and media are on this.

Olesh — There are plenty of people in this nation who deserve to be honored, but does that mean they can break the law. Do you think that the police department would allow military veterans gathering for a conference to drink in public, litter, park where they please, or urinate in public?

For me, it’s not about the noise, but respecting laws that police officers otherwise demand to be respected.

Here is our city councilman’s response to my e-mail

Mr. Olesh,

Thanks so much for your email. I share your regard for honoring the men and women that serve in our police forces and am very proud that the National Police Week and the associated memorial to those lost on the job can call DC (and Ward 6) home. That said, I do expect our visiting officers to be good neighbors, and some of the isolated incidences of excess (in one example, a bagpipe band playing in the street after 2:00 am), justifiably upsets some residents.

I believe the balance can be found and we will be proud to host National Police Week again next year.

Tommy

What a shock this must be to city officials, including Cmd. Groomes, that drunken police officers are violating more laws than the average citizen can cite. Shocking!

No doubt officials will investigate this and do something about it. Maybe an officer or two might actually get a mild reprimand.

And then 2008 will roll around, and citizens will complain, providing eyewitness accounts, video, etc., and city officials will be SHOCKED, including Cmd. Groomes, and will investigate, etc.

And then 2009 will arrive, then 2010, 2011…and on and on and on.

Simple fact is that city officials, including, Cmd. Groomes, expect this behavior during police week and tacitly condone it.

Those who don’t recognize this pretend that these officers are supposed to be model citizens on and off the job 24/7. And that city officials are serious about doing something about it.

Yeah, sure. While we’re at it, why don’t we pretend that violence is not condoned in hockey either, or that pro-wrestling is real.

This is a cultural rite that will not go away. Realists will simply bite the bullet for a week or leave town on the weekends that our “finest” are here.

Others will futilely complain and hope something will be done, ironically contributing to their own agony since this will fall upon deaf ears.

The best thing I did was call the DC non-emergency number on Monday about the bagpipes and drums. I said, please send someone over there to tell them to be quiet.

The cop on the phone was like “Well a large number of people called and there is nothing we can do.” I then told her to have a cop go over and fine them for a noise violation (you can see the noise code at http://www.dcra.dc.gov/dcra/lib/dcra/noiseregs.pdf). She pretty much laughed at me and told me deal with it.

Funny thing a neighbor called me on a party I was having once (yes I was loud) and the cops were over in minutes handing me warnings.

Inviting the cops in to our neighborhood is one thing. Having them be hypocrites about the laws they are supposed to enforce is another. Maybe we should let the lawyers and doctors pretend there are no laws a few days a year without any repercussions too. Hell lets give everyone in DC a law free week too.

I agree with 5/16/2007 12:2:00 AM, regarging the expected future enforcement on these issues. “Shocked, shocked I am to find gambling…”

The arguements I’ve heard from various police that they’re just getting together to honor fallen comrads, and “having a few cocktails” reminds me of arguements I heard in the from older Navy guys about hazing traditions. “They’re just a little harmless fun.” “It’s a long-time Naval tradition.” Yet, the Navy leadership decided these things should not continue. Now, things like “Crossing the Line” and Chief’s Initiations are not nearly as rough as they were — nobody being duct-taped to anything — yet manage to continue in the same spirit. Those who violate the new rules find themselves in a whole mess of trouble.

If Police Leadership (something we still lack in DC) were to seriously lay down the law on this event, and enforce it with consequences, the problems would reduce. Until then, they will continue, year after year.

As for those who opine that this problem is “location specific,” try living at or near the location, or try passing anywhere near the location.

go to this site for a cop’s perspective of our complaints:

http://forums.officer.com/forums/showthread.php?p=878457

Basically telling us they’ll do as they please.

Glad to see this blog. I know the resident, who taped the visiting officers on 5th St. NW between F and H Streets.

She has a meeting scheduled with Commander Burke, ABRA, DCRA and EMA next week. I will print out these comments for her to take to that meeting.

She does not feel comfortable giving her name to the press or on a public forum at this point, due to the hostility she has encountered over the video tape.

If you want to see more of what was going on, please go to Youtube.com and search for:

InThePublicEye

The video will come up and you can see for yourself the comments are in favor of leaving the officers alone and for us to stop bothering them.

Trust me when I say I have seen the video footage of the DC MPD standing idle while these guys did what they pleased. The resident was able to zoom in on the officers faces and car numbers, so there is no doubt as to who was on duty, or when.

If anyone would like to send an email to the resident directly to have additional information presented to that meeting, please send it to:

inthepubliceye@gmail.com

Let her know you support her and what she has been able to do for all of us. She is tenacious and will not let this go until there is action taken.

I just read those posts, and I find them laughable. Living downtown doesn’t mean drinking in the streets and breaking traffic laws. It means drinking in bars and walking.

Noise is one thing but I was at a bar next to the Georgetown Law Center last week and two cops drove by on motorcycles spraying pepper spray down the street. If there were a legitimate reason I may understand but the street was empty and the pepper spray made its way into the bar. Within minutes, myself and about 25 other people were coughing and rubbing our eyes. It looked as though the motorcycle officers were just out on a joy ride. Unexcusable.

As a resident in the area, I have dealt with MPD on some of these types of issues. I have a few thoughts to share. The local patrol works hard for the local residents, but (as in any organization) their approach will be influenced by a top-down culture. Local patrol officers only write tickets and take action for things that their superiors have deemed to be a problem. Therefore, be wary of punishing the local officers and point your concerns squarely at their superior officers. If local patrol shrugs off your concerns, it is only because their superior officers act the same way.

The only way to influence police behavior is to submit complaints and threaten (or actually take)legal action. Some media spotlight on the problem is helpful–but only if it ultimately ties in Mayor Fenty, since he is ultimately accountable. Until the Mayor is dragged in, nothing will really change.

My impression is that MPD prefers to issue multiple warnings for nonviolent offenses (not including partkicj tickets) even though the illegal activity does have victims – residents of the neighborhood. They will not even issue tickets (arrests would rarely be called for for a nonviolent illegal action).

My hope is that the MPD will stop avoiding the problems of illegal activity in the neighborhood and start to issue tickets for violations. I am sure there are reasons they do not want to issue tickets – perhaps they make the MPD (and the local police managers) look bad? Any police manager who support local patrols and the broken windows theory should support issuing tickets, especially because the people who are doing the illegal activity are not from this neighborhood. Who are the MPD supposed to be serving?

Moving forward, change will only happen if a neighborood organization identifies actual violations of DC law and files complaints. Once the complaints have been filed can residents have an effective conversation with the higher ranks of MPD.

I also have a feeling that to be more effective local residents need to get familiar with the specific of District regulations. Maybe this blog can have a resource so readers can understand and cite specific District nuisannxe (i.e. liquor and noise)regulations.

Probably my best conversation was with an officer from Queens who was urinating in front of the GAO building. He was wearing one of those hilarious kilts. I stopped him and said, “Got a question. If I go to NY and urinate on the sidewalk what happens?” He said, I arrest you. Then I said, why can’t I arrest you for urinating on the sidewalk in my neighborhood? We got into a little heated debate but it came down to this was his “vacation” and he was a cop and could do what he pleases. Silliness.