Civil rights group to protest as first checkpoint introduced

A coalition of civil rights leaders today is expected to denounce Mayor Adrian Fenty‘s plan to quarantine crime-ravaged neighborhoods as a knee-jerk reaction implemented with little community input or support.

“Granted there are people who are tired of the violence, but I don’t know if this is going to solve anything,” said Mark Thompson, who heads up the NAACP Metropolitan Police Task Force. “And it is almost impossible for our leadership … to condone a pseudo-military presence in an African American neighborhood.”