WASHINGTON - Dramatic new video revealed a growing unrest between D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department and the people who live in Northeast D.C.’s Deanwood community.
On Monday night, angry community members clashed with more than two dozen D.C. police officers, some of whom held pepper spray, batons and tasers to control the crowd. Four people were arrested, three for assault on a police officer and one for threat to do bodily harm.
Black Lives Matter Core Organizer April Goggans said tension between the people of Deanwood and the police department had been growing.
“The taunting, the pushing, the hitting, the searching, all of those things over time erode the dignity of human beings. It doesn’t matter what situation,” Goggans said. “You do that for so long, and when you tell your elected officials and they do nothing, what are you supposed to do?”
In a statement Tuesday, D.C. police acknowledged the divide between the department and the community.
“We understand the tensions following the incident that occurred yesterday. Please know that we will continue to work with residents of the community, Advisory Neighborhood Commission, and stakeholders. The most important thing is that we work together.” - Karimah Bilal, Public Affairs Specialist Metropolitan Police Department
Cell phone video obtained from four members of the crowd showed officers standing shoulder-to-shoulder, pushing back the crowd as people yelled profanities at many of the police officers, some of whom shouted back at the crowd.
To watch the video, which compiles all four of the cell phone recordings from different angles of the incident, click here or watch the video below.
WARNING: The video contains strong language.
The incident happened on Sheriff Road, the same street D.C. police forcibly frisked a group of young African American men for weapons on June 13th. That search only turned up a BB gun.
Cell phone video of the encounter prompted District 7 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Lorenzo Green to wrote a letter to Police Chief Peter Newsham demanding an investigation, calling those searches unconstitutional.
And after this latest incident, Green was pointing the blame squarely at Newsham.
“It would be an early birthday gift if he would resign tonight,” Green said. “You know, he needs to go. His whole top leadership needs to go. All these commanders that think they are doing true community policing needs to go. Newsham needs to go. This is not how you respond to a community that s crying out for help. Because that’s what that video is about. It’s about folks crying out for help.”
WUSA9’s yearlong investigation, “DC Police: Stop and Frisk” uncovered 8 out of 10 people stop and frisked by D.C. police are African American. It also found the police department has failed to follow a critical part of a law passed in 2016, known as the NEAR Act, to better track stop and frisk in the district, to protect against racial bias.
“There is a huge problem with policing in our city and they need to wake up,” Green said. “Newsham is not collecting all the data he is required to collect from the NEAR Act because he don’t want them to see the truth. He doesn’t want to see what’s happening with these stops.”
A spokesperson for D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department declined a request for an interview.
The department’s crime map shows the scene of the clash with police is a high-crime area. In the past year, 166 total crimes were committed in a 1,500-foot radius. Of those crimes, 23 were violence and four were murders.
In her statement, the spokesperson for D.C. police said officers were already present in the area on patrol Monday night, and due to growing tensions, the decision to have additional officers assist was made.
“I’m saddened by this. Sad,” Green said, breaking down in tears after the clash with police was over. “This is the response? This is the response for folks speaking out for our people? This is the response?
“But I’m not afraid of them. We’re going to push back hard and we’re going to keep talking our (expletive). We’re going to keep talking and we’re going to keep posting those videos, and we’re going to keep revealing the truth to our people and hope that they wake up and realize that when your people speak, you need to listen to them.”
