Mayor Anthony Williams said Tuesday that he would “fear for this city” under an Adrian Fenty administration. These harsh words are in response to the Ward 4 D.C. Council member and mayoral candidate’s resistance to a package of emergency crime-fighting measures.
Williams never mentioned Fenty by name during a brief meeting with reporters outside the LeDroit Park home of former Mayor Walter Washington, but the council member was clearly the target of the current mayor’s ire.
“If he believes so much in engagement, he should have come to [last Tuesday’s council] briefing and said something at the briefing as opposed to just throwing rocks,” Williams — who has endorsed Council Chairman Linda Cropp for his job —said of Fenty. “I fear for this city if the way we’re going to be governing under this kind of administration is just sitting up in the distance in an anchor booth commenting on everything and throwing rocks.”
A week ago, Fenty cast the lone vote against Williams’ crime bill, which included a 10 p.m. curfew for juveniles 16 and younger, surveillance cameras in neighborhoods and more funding for police overtime. The council member, who is leading Cropp in recent polls, said the measure was a knee-jerk reaction.
“You can’t begin a long-term, sustained action against crime without focusing on the immediate impact of crime,” the mayor said. “And any leader who’s telling you, ‘I’m going to allow this crime to continue while I’m working on some long-term strategy,’ doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
Cropp has turned Fenty’s vote into a campaign mantra. Fenty has said consistently that he believes the answer to reducing crime is more police walking the beat as they do in other major cities.
