Trinidad Checkpoint Plan Sparks Mixed Reaction

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CAN A MILITARY-STYLE checkpoint stem the bloodshed in the violence-plagued neighborhood of Trinidad? D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and Police Chief Cathy Lanier are hoping so, but some city residents aren't so sure.

Under the plan, called the Neighborhood Safety Zone initiative, a police checkpoint will be set up on Saturday at 1400 block of Montello Avenue NE — a part of the neighborhood that has seen considerable violence. As The Post's Allison Klein reports:

[O]fficers will check drivers' identification and ask whether they have a "legitimate purpose" to be in the Trinidad area, such as going to a doctor or church or visiting friends or relatives. If not, the drivers will be turned away. ...

Police will search cars if they suspect the presence of guns or drugs, and will arrest people who do not cooperate under a charge of failure to obey a police officer, officials said.

The enforcement will take place at random hours and last for at least five days in Trinidad, with the option of extending it five more days. Checkpoints could be set up in other neighborhoods if they are requested by patrol commanders and approved by Lanier.

Reaction to the initiative has been mixed.

Said editor Sommer Mathis at citywide blog DCist: "Wow. Just, wow ... It's a struggle to think of words to describe such a plan other than authoritarian or ghettoization."

A commenter at Frozen Tropics, a Trinidad-based blog, credits the police with making their presence felt:

It's not going to end crime here but they're trying something to see what effect it has. Unless you have the silver bullet that will end crime in Trinidad, why not give the cops their due for trying something?

Angela Valdez at Washington City Paper's City Desk, had this to say in a post headlined "Culture of Fear in D.C.": "It strains the mind to imagine how this will do anything other than displace crime, and send a very clear message to kids growing up in D.C. that the police already think they're criminals."

I think that Lanier and Fenty deserve some credit for tackling the issue head-on. But it's a sad state of affairs that law-abiding Trinidad residents will be forced to live in a short-term police state because city leaders couldn't keep the neighborhood safe in the first place.

What do you think about the Trinidad checkpoint? Let us know below in comments.

» "D.C. Police to Check Drivers In Violence-Plagued Trinidad" [WaPo]

Photo courtesy D.C. Wire