WASHINGTON — DC Councilmember Brooke Pinto introduced emergency legislation Thursday to address the concerns of neighbors who say they are under siege from unnecessarily loud protests near their homes, with noise levels that often exceed 100 decibels.
“The purpose of this emergency and temporary legislation is to amend, on an emergency basis, the Residential Tranquility Act of 2010 to prohibit persons targeting a residence or purposes of a demonstration from using amplified sound devices in a residential zone and to prohibit a person as part of a group of 3 or more persons from targeting a residence for purposes of a demonstration between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m.,” Councilmember Pinto wrote in a memo to DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson.
The legislation from Pinto comes in the wake of a WUSA9 investigation, which highlighted complaints of neighbors in D.C.’s toney Kalorama neighborhood, who live within earshot of the Chinese Ambassador’s residence on 23rd and S Streets.
“Kids don't want to come home for holidays,” said ANC2D Commissioners Carole Feld. “People don't want to host friends at their home.”
For nearly two hours most mornings, and on many evenings around dinner time, protesters descend on the neighborhood with megaphones to air grievances with the Chinese government. The volumes are so loud, the noise reverberates for blocks.
WUSA9 took sound readings with a digital reader and recorded levels over 104 decibels. Sound experts say the noise levels neighbors routinely wake up to is equivalent to a freight train passing by, or sitting in the front row of a rock concert.
The protesters blare the megaphones from 7 a.m. until shortly after 9 a.m., when the ambassador leaves for work. Some days, they also return for a couple hours around dinner time. It’s been happening for roughly two years, and neighbors say they are fed up.
“Nothing to do with the Chinese or the First Amendment,” said Don Friedman, president of the Sheridan-Kalorama Neighborhood Council. “It is simply an issue of the noise.”
Friedman added the neighbors, “deserve better.”
In her memo to Mendelson, Pinto said the intent of her emergency legislation is aimed at addressing issues beyond the Kalorama neighborhood.
“The District has experienced an alarming increase in targeted residential demonstrations that employ amplified sound devices, creating widespread disruptions that affect entire neighborhoods and compromise residents' fundamental right to peace in their homes,” Pinto wrote. “These disturbances pose health risks, including anxiety, elevated stress hormones, and adverse psychological effects - particularly impacting children's cognitive development, elderly residents, and those with disabilities."
Pinto wrote a “disturbing trend” has also emerged of individuals throwing projectiles at residential properties as a form of harassment and intimidation, targeting residents based on their beliefs, affiliations, race, religion and other characteristics.
“The existing legal framework lacks adequate protections against these evolving forms of residential harassment, leaving District residents vulnerable to immediate and ongoing harm to their safety, wellbeing, and ability to find peace in their homes,” Pinto wrote.
Feeling ignored and abandoned by lawmakers, some in the Kalorama neighborhood had resorted to taking matters into their own hands. In one instance, an upset neighbor took one of the protesters blaring megaphones, which was strapped to branches in a tree, and threw it in the garbage. It was that neighbor who ended up in handcuffs, briefly detained by the Secret Service assigned to the protesters to keep the peace, on accusations of destruction of property. The neighbor was eventually released without being charged.
Another video posted to X by one of the protesters showed an unidentified neighbor screaming at the protesters to “piss off” and “go away” as one of the protesters screamed back in Mandarin.
WUSA9 spoke to the protesters using a translator app on their phones. They said their complaints revolve around land and financial disputes with their government.
“We feel very sorry for the neighbors around us, but we cannot stop protesting because there is no other way,” said one protester who added the volume is the point, and their way of demanding a meeting with the Chinese ambassador.
But in a statement, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Xie Feng wrote, “the Chinese Embassy has kept open channels of communication with the so-called 'protesters.' The 'protesters' are attempting to coerce the Embassy into intervening in their judicial cases and business disputes, some of which took place over 20 years ago.”
The spokesperson said the Embassy has already relayed the protesters written complaints to the “relevant Chinese authorities and courts.”
“The Chinese Embassy has no right to interfere in judicial decisions,” the spokesperson wrote.
But neighbors say they are the ones caught in the middle. In a September email sent to a group planning ways to fight back, neighbors went so far as suggesting “hiring a private investigator to gather information” on the protesters as a way to get them to stop.
“I think we're at a tipping point for the neighbors,” Feld said. “Right now, people just can't stand it, and they don't see an end in sight and it's just become unlivable. And what's happening here can happen anywhere.”
Why? D.C.’s Noise Control Act.
Almost 50 years old, the law included exemptions carved out for First Amendment Demonstrations, specifically to protest the rights of Unions. Not only do demonstrations in the District have no sound limits outdoors, but the only way the protest could be shut down for violating the noise ordinance is with readings over 80 decibels inside the nearest home. And only if a city inspector does the readings.
But enforcement of the noise ordinance has been kicked around in recent years from agency to agency within DC Government, leaving neighbors frustrated. The Department of Buildings is now responsible for enforcing D.C.’s noise ordinance.
Instead, Pinto’s emergency legislation would amend the Residential Tranquility Act, which does not prohibit sound limits for protests conducted by three or more people, provided the protesters notify police of their intent, which can be done at the scene of the protest and does not require written authorization.
A spokesperson for Pinto said it will be up to Mendelson to set a hearing for the emergency legislation.
Until then, the protesters say their message will keep echoing throughout this community, with sound up.
“Day after day,” one protester told WUSA9.
Pinto’s emergency legislation would also establish a code of law for the District of Columbia to prohibit a person from launching or throwing a projectile onto the residential property of another with the intent to cause fear, to intimidate, to retaliate, or to protest or disparage the conduct, belief, opinions, action, membership affiliation, religion, race, ethnicity, political party membership, speech or writings of a person living or working at that residence.
The emergency legislation will come up for a vote at Tuesday’s council meeting. All emergency legislation is temporary in the District, which means Pinto will have to come up with a permanent bill in order to address the noise issues long term.