High volumes of holiday foot traffic, fewer hours of daylight and “a lot of desperate people” are spurring a D.C. Council member to move an emergency bill Tuesday that would establish enhanced-penalty safety zones around all District transit stops.
Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas Jr. said Monday that his legislation deserved emergency consideration — with no public hearing — because “people are being preyed upon.” D.C. residents, he said, “need to feel a little safer” and deserved “safe passage in our neighborhoods.”
“I think this is an emergency because we have a lot of unemployment, a lot of desperate people,” Thomas said.
The bill would establish 50-foot safety zones around the more than 4,000 bus, van and subway stops in Washington. Placards designating each zone would have to be posted by the “operators of mass transit stops,” and individuals would face enhanced penalties — higher fines and longer jail sentences — if they were caught committing a crime within one.
A “huge portion” of the city would fall into the zones, Thomas said.
Proponents such as at-large Councilman Michael Brown say protected transit areas would be similar to school safety zones, but some critics argue the bill is a knee-jerk reaction.
Cutting crime demands swiftness, certainty and severity of a penalty, said Mark A.R. Kleiman, professor of public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles. Politicians can do little about the first two, he said, so they often resort to a “reflex tick” of enhanced penalties.
“If there were a specific problem around the bus stops, then I could imagine focusing on bus stops,” said Kleiman, author of “When Brute Force Fails: Strategy for Crime Control.” “It sounds arbitrary.”
The legislation makes little sense, as if a person assaulted 48 feet from a bus stop is due greater justice than a person assaulted 55 from the same stop, said Geneva Vanderhorst, a D.C. criminal defense attorney. The public deserves a hearing on the bill, she added.
At-large Councilman Phil Mendelson, chairman of the public safety and judiciary committee, said the best course for the Thomas bill “would be to have a hearing” and to go through the normal legislative process.
The emergency measure needs nine votes to pass. If approved, it would remain in effect for 90 days, during which a permanent version would be considered.
