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Brainstorm: Lives of the Mind John L. Jackson Jr.

The End of Checkpoints in a D.C. Neighborhood

As someone who spent his undergraduate years in Washington, D.C., I have been trying to follow the controversy around those police checkpoints in the Trinidad neighborhood of the city’s Northeast section. The community was put on lockdown for the bulk of last week while law-enforcement officers checked motorists to make sure that they had a good reason for driving through the area.

This was the city’s attempt to deal with a spike in violent crime, including drive-by’s. Police at those checkpoints required that people provided them with their names and the phone numbers of the places they were visiting in the community, a procedure that angered some residents and encouraged others.

The city believes that desperate times have called for desperate measures. Some residents felt that the process merely demonized everybody and insulted long-term community members.

As of this week, the checkpoint system is no more (at least for now). But cities like Washington are still trying to figure out how to deal effectively with a post-90s uptick in urban crime. Did the checkpoints go too far?

Posted at 04:30:46 AM on June 16, 2008 | All postings by John L. Jackson Jr.

Comments

  1. Too far? Hmmmm…. Had criminal behavior gone too far?

    Do we fail to act (when we don’t) because we do not sufficiently value the lives and safety and rights to protection of people who live in areas where lawlessness has reached intolerable rates?

    How many people must die here at home before we extend the protection of law to all our citizens?

    — Joe Erwin · Jun 16, 08:45 AM · #

  2. They can have checkpoints out the wazoo, but they ain’t gonna get what they need b/c the political powers-that-be have decided that sane gun control is too much of an infringement on the ‘right’ of middle-class white Americans to arm themselves to the gills in a fantasy world effort to protect themselves from a menace that doesn’t exist. Somebody important in this society needs to get on TV at some point and just shout “IT’S THE GUNS, STUPID!” until the authorities come and drag him away…

    — a tired rambler · Jun 16, 05:36 PM · #

  3. Mr. Jackson, I’d like to ask, did anything change? On the days/nights in question have reduced crime? Are there any longer term benefits for this?

    With all things being equal, the infringement of one’s rights outweigh any slight tangibles. Yet, if the police are catching people with rifles and shotguns, I’d say give it time. The question is how much time.

    Patrick

    — Patrick · Jun 17, 09:33 PM · #

  4. I hear what you’re saying. I don’t have the figures, but I’ll try to find them. I also plan to visit the neighborhood this week. I am an anthropologist after all. The stats alone couldn’t carry the day for me.

    Of course, the question still remains about what magnitude of crime reduction would ever justify “infringement of one’s rights” (as you put it), no?

    — John Jackson · Jun 18, 06:44 AM · #

  5. “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
    -Patrick Henry

    Infringing rights is a slippery slope, so we must tread carefully. I could understand having checkpoints to check for guns, but asking for names and phone numbers is going too far for my sense of justice.

    — a different Dan · Jun 19, 10:49 AM · #

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