anyone know if the arrest is what the helicopter flying over petworth was about this morning?

I can only hope they found the firearm used and the prosecution goes better than the attempted murder/shooting in Mt Pleasant that was just ‘dropped’:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MPD-3d/message/7412

Say what you want about the Hispanics. But at the least the No Snitchin mentality isn’t pervasive.

VOR:

Plainly stated: If the front door lock had worked and the landlord had forced bad tenats out, the little boy would be alive.

Take you crime apologist BS for a long walk on a short pier.

Granted, fixing the building isn’t a magic bullet. But the landlord deserves a fair amount of blame here. Fenty, and Williams before him, have been saddled with a city bureaucracy full of useless paycheck collectors who are protected by the racial politics of the city council. That’s why DCRA is worthless, that’s why the PD is slow and cumbersome, and the examples keep on giving.

I would bet my house that Josue Pena is not legal.

Hispanics have a pretty strong no snitching ethos–as do Anglo Saxons, Jews, italians (hey just look at the Sopranos, huh?). As does anyone to their perceived tribe or interets group. No one’s going to turn in a family member, friend, someone they indentify with–or fear–unless. Unless the reward is huge, revenge is tronger than fear, or the perpetrator’s done something so repugnant even to street culture that they can’t hide. If Oscar Fuentes was a teenager, would there be this angst and outcry? This stuff is deeper and more pervasive than this one murder. Pretty soon the angst, and the light tower and TV cameras, will go.

As for the Mayor et al, I’m petty sick of him showing up on camera after the fact, but not actually making an attempt to solve problems thru policy and example/bully pulpit. Again, his only qualification for support by gentrifier or old head wealthy west of the park is that he’s (1) not cut from the Barry mold and (2) he’s not cut from the Vince Gray old school public sector-fed black bourgoisie. But I see that largesse ending. Ditto for Lanier.

PS if Obama wants to dump Gitmo, it’s OK by me. Terrorists are criminals, not soldiers, and should be put on mocking parade here in front of us. But maybe we should keep it open for the scumbags who seem to be a permanent fixture here in the District. It would solve problems of jobs and education, access, but maybe the fear of our own version of devil’s Island might keep a select few of these miscreants in line.

@ ProfChris–double the answer? Anyway, I see your points and I agree. Even about Mayor Fenty, and yes, Gitmo.

@CH Dude–why the disprespectful response to voiceofreason? First, it has no place on comments yet is easy because you can remain anonymous. Second, what did VOR say that was so terrible? That the elected govt to which we pay taxes has a responsibility and shouldn’t lay this on this person and their lack of maintenance? It’s about people, not doors.

Great news!

Even in buildings with perfectly working locks and doors, the criminals gain access, either by propping the door, breaking the door or being let in by friends/family.

Even when landlords call in criminal behavior and evict criminals, the activity continues.

Even when police make arrests and politicians make speeches, the activity continues.

The violent, criminal behavior will NOT stop until WE, as a COMMUNITY, work together to stop it. That means hard work from everyone to reach the children of the neighborhood and start doing the jobs their non-existent or unwilling parents are not doing.

Simply blaming the landlord, or the police, or council members, or the mayor, serves no real purpose. Simply relocating the poor serves no purpose.

I apologize for no criminals, I’m glad there was an arrest and the murderers should be held fully accountable for their foul deeds. But it takes a LOT more than that to solve this problem.

As a former attorney for the District of Columbia, I (for once) agree with Monkeyrotica.

This place should have been crawling with inspectors on a regular basis.

That said, the mayor needs to grow a pair and confront violent crime in this city head on.

What does that even mean? Josue Pena is still alive.

Are you confusing him with the victim of this horrible crime?

Not clever to start with and a FAIL on execution.

You may remember the building in MP that burned last March after many failed code inspections, prompting resolute cries of reform from Fenty and council. This latest incident mirrors that one, except a boy was killed of course. Fenty and Co. have no reason to care about these buildings, they don’t have to live but on the contrary probably get generous contributions from the landlords. Further, many of these residents may not vote. Lastly, Fenty and Co. had a chance at enhanced crime legislation this summer, instead they issued the policy equivalent of “ummmm…. duhhhhh”.

However mad you are, you’re not nearly mad enough.

monkeyrotica Says:

November 17th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Inspectors found 100+ housing code violations after the murder investigation started. The landlord deserves plenty of blame, but where were the inspectors?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Look, I can go in anyone’s home on here and find dozens of violations. Even in a well maintained home. I have gotten written up for lack of a working smoke detector. Sounds bad right? Until you consider that most of my tenants FRY everything they eat. As a result, the smoke detector goes off alot when they are cooking. They take it down and never put it back up. I got a violation. Soon as the inspector leaves, they take it right back down.

You can get a violation for something as simple as a doorknob or a hole in the wall. Many of these poor income people have very dysfunctional homes. They fight and knock holes in the walls. Is that the landlord’s fault? They rarely tell you these things until an inspector cites YOU for it. I bet most landlords do not go around knocking holes in the walls. I once got a violation for clogged drains. My plumber snaked the drain only to find coins down the drain.

When renting to black people (mainly women), they put a LOT of weave which is synthetic hair in their head. That stuff is a terror on the drains. It constantly stops up the drain. So I kept having to send my pluumber out to a property for clogged drains. I find out the girl is running a braiding hair business in her Section 8 property. How would I have known illegal activity (HUD rules) was occurring had it not been for the extraordinary amount of fake hair going down the drain? If someone had been killed in her apartment or assaulted over services rendered, would it have been my fault?

Another thing most of you never factor in is the extreme wear and tear that low income people inflict on a dwelling. They typically tax an apartment by having too many people living there. As a result, door knobs, toilets, etc take a beating. A 1br apt is not intended for 4 people living there. Anyone want to bet that many of the apts in this building are overcrowded?

It is easy to blame the landlord. But you won’t solve the problem by attacking him/her. I have lived in numerous apartments in this city. Not once has the doorknob to the front door of the building been broken off. Getting to the reason of why this building’s door is constantly vandalized requires some inconvenient truths.

And of course, as in almost any crime, there is plenty of blame to go around. To minimize or excuse one of many causes (as the unlocked door here undoubtedly was) is not to say that is the ONLY cause. But it is one of many issues that need to be addressed. We need a multidisciplinary approach here, ranging from better schools with longer school years and longer after school programs to more aggressive / creative intervention with gangs to more effective deterrence to community policing to support for kids without families to specific deterrence of repeat offenders to breaking down no snitching barriers to yes, making landlords and housing project managers more accountable for what happens in perpetually problematic buildings. It makes no sense to sneeze at one particular cause and one particular solution when every little bit helps, however incrementally.