The Washington Blade has been on top of this story, which has become a big issue here in DC:
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier told LGBT activists that as many as seven police officers could be fired for refusing to take a report for a hate-related attack against five lesbians on July 30 near the Columbia Heights Metro station.Something has to be done. This was an absolute outrage. But, it's not isolated. John wrote about this last week:
In a private meeting on Aug. 11 with officials of the local group Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence, Lanier called the conduct by the officers “lazy policing,” according A.J. Singletary, the group’s chair.
“She said they’re going to be doing a thorough investigation but that type of offense can be punishable by termination,” Singletary quoted Lanier as saying. “So she laid it on the table that it’s possible that they may be fired. That depends on what the investigation determines,” he said.
It's a problem we've had for years. And nothing is ever done about the officers who do this.I hope Chief Lanier delivers.
Even more troubling, in this case, the cops refused to file a report when the women asked. They're not permitted to refuse to file a report in DC. They have to file a report if you ask them to. But they didn't. And they'll get at most a slap on the wrist. It's the same bs I went through when I was mugged in DC, on a busy street, and the cops even had one of the accomplices there with us, they let him go, after repeatedly suggesting to me, quite forcibly in fact, that the two kids trying to strangle me to death might have been "joking." Yes, I was pinned to the ground at night by two thugs, in a stranglehold so tight that I literally couldn't breathe one molecule of air, and maybe it was "just a joke."
It's a great city, our nation's capital. The police don't care to fix the problem, and our politicians provide lip service but never really do anything to change the culture at the police department.
