Mr. Mayor Take these Chains off!

Sunday evening on 9NEWS NOW we aired a segment in which reporter Dave Statter showed children jumping a locked gate at the Kennedy playground at 5th and O streets Northwest. The gate and fence surrounded a playground, basketball court, play equipment and spacious greens where kids of all ages could gather - if only they could get there!

What's wrong with this picture? In a city where a crime emergency has been declared, and the Mayor and DC Council are implementing a 10pm curfew why is the playground on lockdown? The Kennedy Recreation Center also boasts a spacious indoor facility with basketball courts, meeting rooms and more... in a neighborhood where Red Hat patrols are battling drug dealers and gunboys in the streets.

Here's a suggestion! Mister Mayor let's open the rec center from morning till 10pm every night-seven days per week; not just in the Shaw area where the Kennedy playground is located; but every recreation center in the District! If city employees don't want to work the weekend overtime when the children are on the sidewalks and in the streets, then how about hiring the Alliance of Concerned Men to do the job? This group of youth advocates and mentors has brokered peace agreements with gang members and saved countless numbers of children from joining the gangs and crews. The Alliance had sought a million dollars to begin programs in every quadrant of the city thus helping to head off the kind of crime emergency we are experiencing right now. Mayor Williams your administration gave them a lousy $100,000 dollars. There are good people in this city who know how to reach the children at their level. They know the language. They have been there and survived the bad parenting, the streets, the justice system. Its time to get out of their way and let them and others do the job! Police alone won't solve this crime problem.