Retired D.C. Police Lt. Brahm Persaud made the mistake of stopping for gas at a Citgo station on Kenilworth Avenue NE on Saturday just before noon.
Coming up in the city, graduating from McKinley Tech and serving as a cop for a couple of decades, you might have thought Persaud would have known to avoid this stretch of Kenilworth near 13th Street. Locals call it carjacking central.
A BMW pulled up along side Persaud’s black Lexus. At least one of the three men in the Beemer pulled a gun and demanded Persaud give up the keys to his Lexus. Persaud was carrying. Shots flew. Persaud was hit in the arm and side; the three drove off with the Lexus and the BMW. Persaud was taken to the hospital.
Investigators collected shells from Persaud’s hand gun but not from the carjackers. “Must have ejected into the car,” one told me. Cops found the Beemer but not the gun boys.
The season of high crime is upon us. Streets get hot, tempers flare, bullets fly, knives slash. Cops tell me knifings are up. Carjackings are out of control in neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River; burglaries and theft from cars are way up west of Rock Creek Park.
The politicians running for office would have us believe that Washington is becoming safer by the day. The police department crows about the precipitous drop in homicides; indeed, they fell last year to 143, the lowest since the 1960s. But the city has a long way to go before residents feel safe in their streets and homes.
The crime season and the campaign season will coincide in the next three months. Three politicians with direct control of the police department are asking for our votes. Mayor Adrian Fenty is basing his re-election on lowered crime. Council Chairman Vincent Gray is challenging him and recently got the support of the police union. Judiciary Committee Chairman Phil Mendelson is up for re-election.
Here are a few questions we must ask:
» Why has Fenty refused to negotiate with the police union? Neither cops nor fire fighters have had raises in years. Unhappy cops are less likely to keep us safe. Why did he cut 200 cops from the budget?
» Would Gray keep Police Chief Cathy Lanier? If not, would he choose a new team from within the department? Why did not object to Fenty’s proposal to cut retirement benefits?
» Mendelson has refused to hold hearings on a crime bill that would permit the city to bring civil injunctions against suspected gang members. Why?
» For all three: Why does the MPD report different crime stats to us and to the FBI?
And why do residents across town feel uneasy?
“The police haven’t come to terms with what they have to protect,” says Matt Rhoades, who writes the Borderstan blog in and around Logan Circle. “The city has attracted thousands of new residents — now it has to protect them.”
Retired Lt. Persaud had to protect himself. Last word is he’s still hospitalized, in stable condition.
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Tuesday and Friday. He can be contacted at [email protected]
