D.C. police set up checkpoints in Trinidad, despite lawsuit
By: Whitney Blake
Examiner Staff Writer
July 21, 2008
WASHINGTON — After a string of shootings over the weekend, the D.C. Police department has reinstituted checkpoints around the violence-plagued Trinidad neighborhood despite being embroiled in a legal battle over the constitutionality of such Neighborhood Safety Zones.
Seven individuals were shot and an eighth stabbed in five separate incidents in Trinidad between 1:07 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. early Saturday morning.
Thirteen-year-old Alonzo Robinson, who was visiting from Alabama with his mother, was killed. His mother was also injured.
Police Chief Cathy Lanier issued a statement Saturday indicating police would run checkpoints around the neighborhood through Thursday.
In June, when police initially set up roadblocks there for six days, they questioned and turned back anyone seeking to enter the area without a legitimate reason.
"I feel great sympathy," said District Councilwoman Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3. But the police department’s action "borders on a publicity stunt," she said. "I’m distressed they feel it’s OK to go ahead when there’s a grave question about their constitutionality and their effectiveness."
Just a week and a half ago, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who is weighing a class-action lawsuit over the checkpoints, declined to issue an injunction against future roadblocks, because he doubted the District would reinstate the program in the face of pending legal action.
The D.C. Court of Appeals, in Galberth v. U.S., struck down similar checkpoints in the same Trinidad neighborhood in 1991.
Community reaction to the roadblocks was mixed.
Last month, many local and national bloggers likened the move to creating a police state.
This time, one Trinidad resident, Dawn Boutelle, wrote, "I do not feel checkpoints are the answer," but added that she doesn’t mind them, on a Metropolitan Police Department Yahoo group forum.
"Any strategy that has pushback from community or creates resentment is not going to be affective," said D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson, D-at large.
But others welcome the roadblocks. "I was so happy to see the checkpoint," said Kathy Henderson, an immediate past ANC commissioner who lives across the street from Trinidad.
She said she’s supporting a neighborhood petition to "do whatever is necessary to protect our safety."
Lanier did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.
wblake@dcexaminer.com
