By Lisa Tanger
David Robinson, 17, and his friend, Lelvia, 17, can be found most afternoons hanging out at the Kennedy Recreation Center. The center, after all, is a self-described safe-haven for Shaw youth, designed to take them off the streets and reduce the violence that has riddled the neighborhood for so long. On one unusually warm day in March, the two boys were standing outside, enjoying the sunshine. The image of the two leaning against the orange-tinted brick building that morning was iconic of a larger educational, racial and community struggle. Robinson and his friend represent the key to ending the violence in Shaw: young minds.
Photo by Adina Young
Police patrol V St. in Shaw District.
Asked about the neighborhood turf wars, Lelvia diverted his eyes to the ground.
“I don’t know anything about that,” he responded quietly, invoking a familiar mantra.
Speaking in hushed tones, Robinson explained the current turf wars.
“I’m going to keep it real with you. N____s don’t like n____s, that’s the problem. Stuff happens over misunderstandings,” Robinson said.
He described a neighborhood “beef” between youth that live in a group of apartments on the corner of 7th and O Streets, N.W., and youth that live in apartment complex just a few blocks north at 7th and R Streets, N.W. The 7th & O crew is commonly known as “KDP” — a moniker referring to the Kennedy Playground, and the 7th & R crew is known as Lincoln-Westmoreland – named after the apartment complex. Robinson self-identified as KDP.
He said it is difficult to determine why the crews are still fighting, but said he thinks it traces back to a January 2007 shooting of a Lincoln-Westmoreland resident. He said he does not know what it will take to end the cycle of violence.
“Only God knows when it will end,” Robinson said.
Pressed on the rationality of endless fighting, he said it is his duty to fight if someone in KDP is threatened. Asked whose responsibility it is to curb the violence, and Robinson pointed to a D.C. Metropolitan Police squad car that was parked at 7th and O. streets. A police officer was speaking to a group of youth who were crossing the street, but the conversation was too far away to be heard.
“Police ain’t doing their jobs, that’s the problem,” Robinson said. “A while back, my man got shot, and the police took their time coming around that block.” He continued, raising his voice for the first time, “The police are concerned with little things like jaywalking, but as soon as somebody comes around shooting, where are they?”
Robinson said although many of the police are black men, just like those they are responsible for protecting, the police do not have a sense of responsibility for the youth.
“They don’t care; they don’t care about us,” Robinson said. He said the police assigned to Shaw do not live in Shaw, so they have no personal connection to the neighborhood.
On this blue-sky day, another police squad could be found parked just one block south of the recreation center, with an officer sitting in the front seat. Asked about the gun violence in Shaw, the officer raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know anything about that,” the officer replied.
Presented with statistics on crime since the turn of the year, the officer relented and said the young men in Shaw think it’s glamorous to be tough.
“These guys pretend they’re in a group or a gang, and look what happens: their friends pay attention, the government pays them attention,” the officer said.
He said he has lived in the District for 37 years, and there are a lot of other neighborhoods that could use the type of police attention Shaw has been receiving. More startling, the officer speculated the turf war is not real.
“I’m of the mind that a lot of this activity is staged, based on what I’ve been hearing,” he said.
He said he does not seek to break rank, but he disagrees with the current police department policy that requires the squad cars to be fixed to specific locations.
“The fellas know where I am at all times,” the officer said. “Do I know where they are at all times? No.”
He said individuals committing a crime — such as a drug offense — could be standing just one block away from him, but he cannot not move to their location fast enough without his squad. He said the individuals would be able to scatter if they see him walking toward them.
“The tail is wagging the dog. It’s time the dog wagged the tail,” the officer said.
Theresa Sule is a Shaw resident and co-chair of the public safety committee of the Convention Center Community Association. She is also the mother of a toddler. On this beautiful day, Sule took the opportunity to walk the neighborhood with her daughter. She said the police need to remove loiterers from the neighborhood because they are the cause and the target of the violence. She pointed out locations along 7th street where city benches had been removed in an effort to discourage loitering, but said that was not enough.
Sule said she is not very fearful for her own safety when she walks the streets, because innocent people are not generally the ones getting shot.
“If someone gets shot, they are generally a part of the problem,” Sule said.
With a half-hearted chuckle, she said the street crews know who they are aiming at, and if an innocent bystander gets hit, it is because the crew is just a bad aim.
Sule said the violence will not change overnight, it requires a long-term fix. She said the most important solution would be to provide neighborhood children with better educational opportunities.
Michelle Rhee is the chancellor of D.C. Public Schools. She has been embroiled in Mayor Adrian Fenty’s controversial plan to reorganize and consolidate many of the District’s underutilized and deteriorating education facilities. Shaw Junior High School, located near 9th and Q Streets, N.W., has been at the center of the controversy since it was slated for consolidation with Garnet-Patterson Middle School.
Rhee spoke at a luncheon earlier this year at American University, which honored public education volunteers. She spoke then about the consolidation plan and acknowledged the public safety concerns associated with merging children who live in neighborhoods that have long-standing feuds.
“But at the same time, the idea of keeping children segregated based on what neighborhood they live in, that sends an unbelievably negative message that we do not want to send in our schools,” Rhee said in an interview after the luncheon.
She said violence starts in the home and can only end in the home, with parents stopping the cycle. She said the consolidation plan includes socialization activities for students in merging schools, so children can get to know each other and begin to break down existing social walls. According to Rhee, the plan also includes a system for identifying overage youth, such as 17-year-old middle-schoolers, who may be driving the public safety problems, and creating separate programming for them.
“The bottom line is that we are, in this day and age, we are still allowing the color of a child’s skin and the zip code that they live in to dictate their education outcome, and, therefore, their life chances,” Rhee said. “It is the biggest social injustice imaginable and it has to stop.”
***
Click on the map to navigate through the community
Post a Comment