Contrary to what Brian says above, the DC Council has held multiple hearings on Hate Crimes and the Police Response to Hate Crimes. There is another one scheduled for this month.

The fact is that the police put more emphasis on crimes that are getting public exposure. So this is a great project. The biggest fear is that it would be too much for a volunteer organization to handle. Perhaps the combined resources of three organizations will make this a realizable goal.

It should be noted that the LGBT community is not the only group that has issues with harassment. Women’s groups such as Hollaback have long been displeased with MPD response to street harassment. They have developed an innovate use of technology to gather data via reports generated by phone apps. There are versions available for both the iPhone and Android smart phones. Volunteers review the data submitted and then okay its inclusion in their database. This allows tracking of where harassment is taking place.

Make no mistake. Lanier and Groomes will try to co-opt this new project, too. That’s THEIR M.O. But MPD’s leadership has proven repeatedly that it can not be entirely trusted with LGBT public safety. The Mayor’s office has delivered a lot of fluff and self-serving happy talk on this issue. Likewise, effective oversight from Council, demanding enforcement of DC’s hate crime law, has been nearly non-existent.

So kudos and the community’s deep gratitude should go to GLOV, DC Trans Coalition, Rainbow Response Coalition and everyone else involved in making this important project a reality for DC’s LGBT residents and visitors.

These LGBT organizations and DC’s diverse LGBT communities need no more patronizing lectures from the likes of MPD’s PR machine as to what constitutes a hate crime under DC’s Bias-Related Crimes Act. The language of that law is clear as a bell. Yet MPD has repeatedly failed to enforce it.

The failure of MPD’s manipulative leadership continues to alarm DC’s LGBT residents. We know that our police force is suppose to be more concerned with our PUBLIC SAFETY, rather than MPD’s and its chiefs’ self-serving PUBLIC RELATIONS.
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“However, it must be understood that Department figures are based on reported incidents that meet legal definitions of both a crime and a crime that was specifically motivated by a legally defined bias.”
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MPD is already starting its back-pedaling SPIN. This MPD carefully-worded response (above) by MPD’s PR spokesperson, to this new independent LGBT initiative, is once again proving that MPD’s top leadership continues to take a quietly hostile, grudging stance to dealing with LGBT public safety in general, and to transgender public safety in particular.

We are family. Let’s give this INDEPENDENT project all the support we can, so as to save the lives and well-being of our own.