The gross misconduct by public officials within the D.C. government marches on. Much as I wanted to write some happy news about happy kids playing at the new Bancroft Playground in Mount Pleasant, the arrest of an advocate covering a public meeting of the D.C. Taxicab Commission this week beckons. What we seem to have in this case is:
» The muzzling of someone covering a public hearing;
» Bald-faced lies by a public official;
» Complicity by Mayor Vince Gray’s office in putting out the lies.
Pete Tucker showed up Wednesday to cover a public meeting of the D.C. Taxicab Commission. Tucker runs the website Fightback.org. He has advocated for independent cabbies and given voice to their opposition to a medallion system being considered by the city council.
As the meeting began, Tucker placed his recorder on the table in front of the commissioners, next to the microphones. Dena Reed, interim chairwoman of the commission, demanded he move it to another table. “This a public meeting,” he says he told her.
The meeting was being held in U.S. Park Police headquarters at 1901 Anacostia Drive SE. Reed called for Park Police. Tucker wound up sitting in the front row, with the recorder pointed at Reed and other speakers.
Later in the meeting, Tucker took photos of Reed for his website. A cab inspector told him he couldn’t take photos and blocked his shot. Someone — my guess is Reed — called the Park Police. At this point Jim Epstein, with Reason.tv, started shooting video. The clip shows cops telling Tucker to quit taking pictures.
“I’m a reporter,” he says. “This is a public meeting.”
They cuff him and escort him out. They arrest him and Epstein and put them in separate holding cells.
Reed declined to comment to reporters directly but said she would make a statement through the mayor’s press office. So Gray put out a statement in which Reed misstated the facts. She said Tucker was “filming” the meeting. Commission rules do prohibit videotaping of its meetings. Tucker maintains he was taking still pictures. Reed said the exchange between Tucker and the police took place in the hallway. But video shows officers cuffing him right in front of her. She said the taxicab commission did not call for the police to intervene. So Tucker called the cops so they could arrest him?
Gray put out a press release Thursday saying he stands up for public meetings; Attorney General Irvin Nathan is investigating. But Reed might have shown the commission to be too rotten to exist.
“I knew the taxicab commission was already dysfunctional,” Council Member Tommy Wells told me, “but this shows that it’s dysfunctional even more.”
Wells oversees the taxi business as chairman of the council’s Committee on Public Works and Transportation.
“I don’t know if the commission ever worked,” he said. “Do we need one? I’m looking at an overhaul, and what happened the other day proves the need even more.”
How about we start by letting reporters cover the meetings?
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Tuesday and Friday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
