Results tagged “checkpoints”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. on Thursday denied the District's petition to re-hear its case challenging the constitutionality of the police checkpoint program used in Trinidad in 2008.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has ruled that last summer's controversial "Neighborhood Safety Zone" checkpoints in the Trinidad neighborhood were likely unconstitutional, sending the case back to the U.S. District Court for trial.

NBCWashington.com reports that The Partnership for Civil Justice -- who unsuccessfully sued the city last year in an attempt to strike down last year's controversial checkpoints in Trinidad -- was back in front of an appeals panel yesterday in a last-ditch attempt to strike the practice. Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, an attorney with the organization, argued that the checkpoints violated "fundamental constitutional rights," and that the police's standards for selecting who could enter the neighborhood were arbitrary. The checkpoints in Trinidad, an incredibly combustible issue last summer which even led to internal rifts in the police force, could potentially return this year if the appeal is denied and violence spikes again.

The Examiner's Bill Myers managed to get a hold of a bunch of internal MPD emails concerning last summer's controversial "Neighborhood Safety Zone" checkpoints in Trinidad, and the resulting story paints a chaotic picture of disagreement and confusion over the tactic within the department. A series of emails written by Assistant Chief Diane Groomes complained that the additional officers sent to staff the Trinidad checkpoint had left areas of the city under-protected. You can download the emails here (PDF).

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier announced this afternoon that five men have been arrested for the killing of 13-year-old Alonzo Robinson and shooting of four other people in Trinidad last July. The shooting spree was one of the worst incidents in a wave of increased violence in Trinidad that lead police to establish controversial checkpoints in the area. Police say the five men, all from the Kenilworth-Parkside area, sprayed gunfire in the neighborhood in an attempt to settle a cross-neighborhood dispute with members of the Trinidad neighborhood. One of the suspects was arrested in early July and has been cooperating with the police.

D.C. Wire is reporting that MPD Chief Cathy Lanier's controversial "Neighborhood Safety Zone" checkpoint tactic has passed its first test in federal court. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon today denied a request for a preliminary injunction against the checkpoints filed by a group of District residents. In the ruling, Leon found that the checkpoints are not unconstitutional and are a reasonable crime prevention tactic to use against a specific kind of vehicle-related violent crime. This is from Leon's conclusion:

Simply put, to take this arrow out of MPD's quiver on such a weak showing as to is unconstitutionality would be injurious not only to MPD's ability to protect our citizens, but to the public's overwhelming need to be protected from these mobile merchants of violence.

The underlying lawsuit against the checkpoints is still ongoing. Judge Leon's ruling means that the MPD may continue to use the "Neighborhood Safety Zone" program while that case is pending. D.C. Wire quotes the head of the police union questioning why Judge Leon didn't address whether evidence discovered during these searches would be upheld in court.

We balked at the initial news that the Metropolitan Police Department planned to throw up barriers and checkpoints in certain D.C. neighborhoods experiencing excessive violent crime. Later, when we learned the details of the first case, the week-long checkpoint that was established in Trinidad, the MPD's plan appeared to be both constitutionally dubious and potentially not very effective. So it's with great interest that we read today's Washington Post editorial lambasting critics of the checkpoints for getting more upset about murky constitutional issues than about high rates of violent crime and murder.

There's a dispute over whether the operation violated Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. There is some merit to the claim that police were using the checkpoints for general law enforcement, which could render them unconstitutional. But city attorneys make a convincing argument that because the program's goal was the physical safety of roadways, it passes constitutional muster. Indeed, they liken the Trinidad stops to sobriety checkpoints, which have been upheld by the Supreme Court.

Most of us who felt that the checkpoints bore a far too close resemblance to police state tactics would argue in return that all of us want an increased police presence in Trinidad that could ensure the physical safety of the neighborhood's roadways -- just not at the expense of hassling and turning away District residents without probable cause. Well via City Desk, it turns out Chief Cathy Lanier says she actually had a specific reason for putting up the Trinidad checkpoint. D.C. Watch has the recap of her testimony at a D.C. Council hearing on the matter.

Chief Lanier announced for the first time that the stated reasons for instituting a blockade of the Trinidad neighborhood were not the true reasons, or at least not the major reason, behind the cordon. There was another, more important, reason, she told the committee, but she could not reveal what that reason was. If the committee members knew what she knew, she was confident that they would agree with her actions, but she couldn’t tell them what she knew. She had, she said, specific information that there were specific individuals who were going to enter that neighborhood to commit a particular crime. Preventing that crime was the real reason for quarantining Trinidad. No lesser measures — tracking those specific individuals, warning the intended victims of the crime, etc. — would have sufficed to prevent the crime. Only a full-scale lock down of the neighborhood and lockout of other citizens was enough. But councilmembers would have to take her word for it, because she couldn’t tell them anything more.

Of course, that's not at all the reasoning Lanier gave when the "Neighborhood Safety Zone" initiative was first announced.