Comments on: Growing rift between Lanier, LGBT community

By: brian

brian — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:49:14 +0000

Thanks, again, chaz. Yours seems to be an excellent detail of the problems at MPD. However, I’m coming to understand that MPD’s problems are not entirely with the Chief.

The Mayor and the Council (representing we, the people) are largely responsible for MPD budget amounts and resource allocations. How much is the Chief hamstrung by budget priorities made by her civilian commanders? Is the Mayor and the Council demanding more policing productivity/ patrols/ crime deterrence than their MPD budgets reasonably permit? It seems we are, with out much forethought as to systemic consequences, not just cutting into MPD’s muscle, but right down to its bone. That’s an extraordinary problem for any Chief.

No politician wants to have a conversation with his/her constituents regarding budget allocations among essential, very popular city services during the toughest economic downturn in many decades. But what’s not essential about DC’s public safety? Maybe voters and/or their leaders have to insist upon that conversation.

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By: chazz

chazz — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:48:17 +0000

@Brian-the growing attrition rate is due to job dissatisfaction and distrust in management. This incident is a perfect example. All we know is one version of the story; 5 members of the LGBT community were attacked by two males and the police did nothing. While it sounds terrible, we haven’t heard the Officers side of the story, nor have we heard the version from the two attackers. In reality, it could very well turn out that there were seven lazy Officers on their way back from Jumbo Slice, and that they failed to take Police action. If that is the case they have disgraced the Department and deserve to be fired; but that should be determined by a thorough investigation, not by the Chief holding street court based on public opinion. Ultimately, if these Officers are fired, they will get their jobs back because of the Chief’s determining their guilt before the investigation even began. That is why 84% of Officers fired by Chief Lanier have gotten their jobs back( with more in the pipe). Some of those Officers deserved without a doubt deserved to be fired, but she dismissed their due process rights in light of some good publicity, and the District ultimately pays the price( both figuratively and literally, when the crap Officer is reinstated and 5 years of back pay and punitive damages are paid to them). On the flipside of the coin, if these Officers were management, this issue would be swept under the rug and never addressed. You also have things like AHOD. Everyone likes seeing the Officers writing tickets on Friday and Saturday nights, but both an Arbitrator and an Appeals board said they violate the Labor Agreement. They are to be stopped immediately, and back overtime is due to all Officers. That should have been the end of it. Instead, the Chief is dragging on the issue, going so far as to create a wedge between the Officers and the CItizens by emailing listserves and portraying them as a lazy, greedy Union workers that just want the weekends off. That is like General Petraeus going to the Afghani people and declaring that the US Army is a corrupt organization that must be stopped. If your boss in the private sector did something this contemptuous, you would quit. If you read the both the arbitrators and the PERBS decision, it is very clear that she violated the contract, and it had nothing to do with 2 weekends in 2009. If AHODs were really that important, why not renegotiate the contract and comply with the law, instead of disregarding the law? Then you have issues like the Trinidad roadblocks, Sheengate and the Groomes cheating scandal, but at this point I’m beating a dead horse. What it comes down to is that everyday Officers feel that managment that can’t be trusted.

Any detractors that say that if “if the cops don’t like the job they can quit” need to wake up and realize cops are quiting every day. Inner City police experience is invaluable to Federal agencies like the FBI and DEA, and surrounding agencies like Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Montgomery, USPP, etc. The majority of local agencies are even buying the Officers time from MPD when they come on, so it wont even effect their paychecks or retirement. The young Officers that are fit, have college experience, and like serving their community are going full Lorax and hopping to Agencies that appreciate them.

By: brian

brian — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 02:10:23 +0000

Thanks, chaz. I hear that, and don’t disagree obviously. That’s important news and context f/ the ranks, too. Is the high attrition rate due to the hiring freeze and resultant extra work? Failure to keep up pay levels with other area agencies? Or what? This is back door carving across-the-board then? Have any news folks reported that story?

By: chaz

chaz — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:16:40 +0000

Not to belittle the needs of the Community, but you do realize Mayor Gray has pretty much fulfilled none of his promises or commitments to any community. As for Lanier, she has ruined MPD. Take the time to talk to any street Officer, and you’ll find morale is worse than it was in the 90s when the Department had a paycut. MPDs attrition rate is higher than anyone wants to admit, and there has been a hiring freeze for the last 2 years. The forty or so Officers they “might” hire in October won’t make up for the 500 that left for other agencies in the last three years. Those 500 were the cream of the crop, not the overweight lazy ones everyone complains about. Its nice to talk about bringing back units like GLUU, but its hard to fill the ranks of a specialized unit when there aren’t enough Officers in roll call to handle basic duties. Lanier’s popularity stems from the fact that she will promise any group anything they want, often at the expense of her Officers and even more often than not ultimately not fulfilled.

By: laurelboy2

laurelboy2 — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 18:09:13 +0000

Brian, chill. You wrote: “…All over America, in city councils, … police chiefs … are ORDERED by those councils to make immediate changes in local police staffing … based upon new crime conditions or important other factors…” What ‘s the urgency in DC? What precipitates “immediate changes in police staffing … based upon new crime conditions or important other factors…?” Cite a continual pattern of egregious crime activities warranting such drastic and immediate changes?

Hummm. Just as I thought; there are none. Might want to make sure you lock your triple dead bolts on your doors each night and you wear your flak jacket and protective eye wear when walking the streets…

By: brian

brian — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:22:31 +0000

**
*Rick Rosendall August 17, 2011 at 3:08 pm*
There is certainly a long list of concerns regarding MPD & the LGBT community. I thought the meeting that Lanier and other top MPD officials held with 13 LGBT activists on August 16 was constructive… Brian, I agree that GLLU should be fully staffed and functioning; but it is not appropriate for the Council to micromanage MPD to the extent of specifying the size of individual units, nor is there any likelihood they would do this. We must hold the Chief accountable, work with her as best we can, and also convey our concerns to Mayor Gray.
**
Rick, upon review, I think “constructive” and “productive” are adequate, accurate soundbites to describe activists’ meeting with the Chief.
But there is absolutely NO REASON emergency legislation by the Council to mandate an orderly upgrade of GLLU’s core unit can’t happen. All over America, in city councils, county councils, town councils, big and small, police chiefs, police commissioners and sheriffs are ORDERED by those councils to make immediate changes in local police staffing (and it can go either way, up or down) based upon new crime conditions or important other factors.
It happened to the police chief in our family a number of times during his tenure– after collaborative consultation with his councils and mayors. Sometimes, he disagreed, but he saluted his mayor and council and implemented the required changes, respecting it was part of a fully legitimate political process, usually required to respond to changing circumstances.
That’s what we have here… Both a crisis in LGBT public confidence in MPD’s ability to serve and protect DC’s LGBT residents and visitors, as well as increasing de facto anti-LGBT INSTITUTIONAL DISCRIMINATION at MPD brought about, IMO, by Chief Lanier’s reckless slashing of GLLU’s core unit– IN HALF!
It is laughable that Lanier solemnly promised your group “to look into” why GLLU officers are less visible on the streets and in locales where LGBT people gather. She knows darn well why that’s so. It’s because that is the way SHE wanted it. Likewise, with less GLLU officers available, she knew detectives and first responders would likely not be calling GLLU for help.
Do you seriously think police chiefs operate in some kind of ignorant vacuum? I can tell you from my experience with Lanier, she keeps her ears very close to the pavement, close to her commands, and even close to her Citizens Advisory Councils. The notion that she was unaware of the consequences of slashing GLLU’s core is preposterous. Likewise, do you think her replacement of a Captain at SLU with a civilian was just another Chief’s “rookie mistake”??? Lots of us smelled that coffee long ago.
The LGBT community should thank its stars that Jim Graham is proactively pushing on this. It was terrific he showed up at the meeting and pushed Lanier directly again.
Jim Graham gets this — in his gut! A growing number of casual LGBT observers of this increasing violent crime wave directed at DC’s LGBT people get it, too. Lanier created this mistrust and fear in the LGBT community by cutting GLLU central — deceptively and stealthily,
BTW. Peter’s got a good instinct about this, too.
But I’m sure a lot of us don’t understand why Vincent Gray, Phil Mendelson, others on the Council, and you don’t get it.
The public safety of the LGBT community deserves emergency Council action, NOW. The Mayor’s, too. I shouldn’t have to remind you that both Vincent Gray and Phil Mendelson– just a year ago– promised LGBT voters they would restore GLLU’s core to its full former strent (2010 GLAA survey questions 12 and 13, eh?).
We don’t need any more show hearings of the Judiciary Committee, nor backpedaling by the Mayor, nor Jeff Richardson — nor GLAA… nor more feel-good meetings by the Chief whose incompetence created this community fear and mistrust to begin with.
Vincent Gary and Phil Mendelson should seriously fulfill their campaign promises to LGBT voters (and their straight neighbors and friends) who trusted those promises.
And GLAA, Rick, should stop making nonsense excuses for their foot-dragging.
###

By: Adrian Salsgiver

Adrian Salsgiver — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 15:50:09 +0000

As a young teenage member of the John Birch Society in the early 1970s, I was taught to “support your local police” and that the police were America’s foremost guardians of freedom”. It was shortly before I encountered my local police and found out that my local police were sick, sadistic, bloodthirsty gay-bashing killers* who brutally beat, strip naked, abuse, and torture innocent children – cover it up and get away with it.
I know because they did it to me.
*I have to say killers instead of murderers because it is never murder when a government authority kills an innocent child or citizen. It is always death while in custody, death after a scuffle, a tragedy, poor training, or some other such nonsense, but never murder.
Nowadays, as a Liberty Activist, I like to joke about being on the list of people who soon must be murdered by government authorities in order to keep their lies and cover-ups going.
What is not funny is that without the GLLU I have no protection from the next rounds of criminal violence which may be perpetrated upon me, whether it be from a government authority, government agency such as CSOSA, (Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency), from a local conman, or a random attack, such as what happened to Jimmy LaSalvia. GOProud’s executive director said an unidentified youth punched him in the chest. If this happened to me and I called the police, they may have showed up and asked me what I did to provoke the attack. I could have been arrested and charged with several crimes including, child battery, simple assault or even attempted murder – for which I could be given a life sentence.
In the testimony of A.J. Singletary, President of Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV), to the DC City Council, Committee of the Judiciary, on July 6, 2011 entitled “Hate Crimes in the District of Columbia and Police Response to Reports of Hate Crimes” GLOV suggests, among other things, that MPD: Publicly state that individuals can request and receive assistance from a GLLU affiliate when reporting incidents and crimes to MPD; and Restore the central GLLU to its previous staffing levels and put a dedicated
manager in charge.
This is most important as it would not be a safe or good idea for me to just call 911 if I need police assistance.
In the Washington Blade article; ‘GOProud head attacked in anti-gay assault’ Sgt. Carlos Mejia said the GLLU and the police department have distributed literature and public notices advising citizens to contact the unit on its new 24-hour smart phone number of 202-506-0714. This is extremely good news. I hope I will not need to call it, but it is in my cell phone now.

By: laurelboy2

laurelboy2 — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 15:31:33 +0000

Sounds like dear Pete is obsessed with Laurelboy2. Awkward. Weird. Have you taken your anti-anxiety and anger management meds today, Sir Peter?

By: Peter Rosenstein

Peter Rosenstein — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 13:14:05 +0000

So we finally know that Laurelboy2 – who is afraid to give his name and likes to write anonymously -is a gay Republican who likes Perry’s record. That clearly explains some of his previous posts on this site. Perry is a former Democrat who voted for the biggest tax increase in Texas history. He then became a Repbulican who believes among other things that people have no impact on climate change (even while Texas industry includes some of the biggest wind energy production supported by the federal government), that creationism is fact and must be taught in schools, that gays and lesbians should have no right to marriage, to any benefits or to equal employment opportunity. I am thankful that most of my Republican friends think Perry is what one recent Republican official who served in both the Reagan and Bush administrations called him “An Idiot”.

But I think that the revelations that Laurelboy2 is making about himself put all his comments into perspective and will allow people to decide they aren’t worth reading. Maybe one day he will find the guts to use his own name as he says he lives an openly gay life. Maybe entertainment for some other Perry supporters will be to look on Perry’s website for Laurelboy2 and see the annonymous comments he makes there.