He Testified
23 September 2009 11:04 PM | By Prince Of Petworth in Crime, Crime - Stories
Back in the end of August, we had a lengthy discussion as to whether someone should testify in front of a grand jury. Here’s the update:
“Well, I decided to testify for the Grand Jury. Wasn’t so bad and best of all, they probably won’t indict for 2-3 months and then not go to trial for another 2-3 months after that (barring a plea deal). While I think some of the responses were cavalier, it helped me think the whole thing through.
By the way, there is a new Neighborhood Watch program I joined that’s starting up in Columbia Heights in need of Block Captains if people want to help take a bite out of crime (and cavalier posters want to put their $ where their mouth is).
Link: http://www.nwchca.org/2.html
The program is expanding throughout the city and if there’s interest it can spread to any neighborhood!”
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24 September 2009 1:12 AM | T.n Said:
YEAH!
24 September 2009 9:56 AM | Anonymous Said:
Good for him! The only way the bad guys will get the message that they have to respect others in the community is if we tell them. On way to tell them is to testify. While some are afraid of “retribution” in reality, it is really rarely directed towards witinesses the bad guys don’t know. Furthermore, most (90%+) of these cases never go to trial and thus no need to testify in public!
Good going dude!
24 September 2009 10:01 AM | Tim Said:
Well done. I appreciate your sacking up and doing what many others would not. You’ve made the neighborhood a safer place. Thank you.
24 September 2009 11:18 AM | NAB Said:
I still fail to see how sticking someone with a puny weapons charge makes the neighborhood “safer”.
24 September 2009 11:35 AM | RaceCar Said:
NAB – are you serious?? From what I remember he called the police on a guy who had a gun in his hand right out in the open! Who knows it this guy was about to go shoot someone, or go home and shoot his girlfriend or if the gun was used in a murder? Maybe he was buying the gun and was going to go rob someone (like you) at gun point?
Maybe he didn’t take down every criminal like a masked superhero, but come on – it all adds up (AND IF THAT CONFISCTED GUN HAD A BULLET WITH YOUR NAME ON IT YOU’D SURE AS HELL FEEL SAFER!)
24 September 2009 12:13 PM | NAB Said:
Calling the cops when he saw the guy with the gun, leading to the cops arriving and dumping the gun definitely made the neighborhood safer. It took the gun out of his hands, right thing to do, no one is arguing that. Testifying against him so he gets a slap-on-wrist weapons charge, if anything, is unlikely to do a damn thing. 0+0 = 0.
24 September 2009 12:54 PM | wotv Said:
This inspires me to participate in community building. Can the gentleman who testified make some requests of what we can do in return? I am committed to chip in.
24 September 2009 1:42 PM | ET Said:
Well I am glad that you testafied. Hopefully it won’t go to trial.
24 September 2009 3:40 PM | Jay'O Said:
If anyone wants to get more involved in making our community safer, please contact Cecilia Jones at: cecilia.a.jones@gmail.com. She is helping create this new neighborhood watch program – not to be confused with patrols that require people to go out an confront thugs. This is more like getting all the law abiding neighbors to be in contact with each other and look out for one another. We’ve done this on our block and it REALLY helps!
24 September 2009 4:49 PM | CP Said:
Congratulations. I’m glad someone did his civic duty
25 September 2009 4:25 AM | CB Said:
slap on the wrist weapons charge?
Anyone with knowledge of D.C. gun laws care to give an informed assessment of this?
I was under the impression that laws built around the gun ban are intentionally harsh — the original intention being, that the gun charges made it easier to throw the book at pushers and bangers who they couldn’t put away easily otherwise.