| Submit your comments on this article | |||
| -Lurid Crime Tales- | |||
| 2 attacks reported after crime emergency declared in D.C | |||
| 2006-07-12 | |||
WASHINGTON — Two groups of tourists were robbed at gunpoint on the National Mall, just hours after the police chief declared a crime emergency in the city in response to a string of violence that included the killing of a British activist. The activist, Alan Senitt, was attacked in the Georgetown area on Sunday, his throat was slit and police say the attackers attempted to rape his companion. It was the 13th homicides in the city this month. Robberies are up 14 percent, and armed assaults have jumped 18 percent in the past 30 days.
On Tuesday night, two women from Texas were robbed at gunpoint by two men dressed in all black, said U.S. Park Police Sgt. Scott Fear. About 15 minutes later, a family of four from Missouri was robbed by suspects with the same description, he said. Though no one was injured, Fear said there were similarities to three violent attacks on the National Mall in May. In one case, a 17-year-old woman was sexually assaulted. "We try to prevent this from happening,'' Fear said. "We're going to reallocate our resources. We're going to see what improvements we can make.'' District of Columbia Police Chief Charles Ramsey declared a crime emergency in the city after Senitt, a volunteer for the potential presidential campaign of former Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner, was killed. The crime emergency declaration allows commanders more flexibility to adjust officers' schedules and reassign them to high-crime areas.
The tourist-friendly National Mall, which is under the jurisdiction of Park Police rather than D.C. police, is usually considered safe. But the recent crimes against tourists have raised calls for a larger police presence. Police are asking Mall visitors to "be our eyes and ears,'' Fear said. "We're going to ask them to be vigilant.''
| |||
| Posted by:Steve |
| #4 Seafarious: Part of the reason behind DC's slight improvement, although July '06 has gotten off to a rotten start, is that a lot of the criminals have shifted on over to next door Prince George's County. That county's annual homicide totals have gone from 70 in 2000 to a record-shattering 175 in 2006. GORY PRINCE GEORGE'S |
| Posted by: Lancasters Over Dresden 2006-07-12 16:43 |
| #3 1. DC does too have a National Guard unit, though I believe the mayor does not have authority to call them up. 2. Even before 9/11, DC was the capital of Cops Sitting Around in Squad Cars Waiting For Something To Happen, and it has truly gotten ridiculous ever since. There are a phenomenally large number of them posted around and near the Mall, at the monuments, near Congress and near the White House. Fleets of them, in fact. 3. It's very disturbing if not entirely surprising that these incidents are happening, DC had been improving tremendously and I'm not keen to see the regression. 4. We're due for a new mayor in the fall, and I'm not really impressed with the contenders. 5. Sigh. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-07-12 15:31 |
| #2 The Capitol Police are far too busy looking out for Congresscritters McKinney and Kennedy (both of them) to be bothered taking care of a few tourists. |
| Posted by: Rambler 2006-07-12 14:40 |
| #1 Quagmire! Redeploy our troops to North Carolina! LOL! It kinda ticks me though that they only decide to take action when a gov's aide is killed. Be nice if they did it for all of the rest of us citizens too. Whatever it takes, I suppose. Throat slit makes me wonder if it was "disaffected youths". |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-07-12 14:37 |