Thank
you,
Neighbor on the 100 Block of V Street NW
----------
Forwarded message ----------
From: Neighbor on the 100 Block of V Street NW
Date:
Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 11:00 AMSubject: Saturday Night's Street Fight
To: bgriffin@howard.edu
Dear
Dr. Griffin,
I
am sure by know you are well aware of the violent brawl that took place on
Saturday night involving a number of Howard Students. If you are not familiar
with the details, I have attached below a few messages sent by my neighbors via
the Bloomingdale listserv. I've lived in Bloomingdale for a number of years and
have witnessed, as the neighborhood has become a safer place to live, the
number of college students living in group houses in the neighborhood increase
greatly. Mostly, this has been positive, aside from a bit of late night, loud
party nuisance that comes with being around youth that age. While I don't
appreciate drunken kids puking in the alley (which I have witnessed), I can
accept that comes with the territory of living in the vicinity of a college
campus.
However,
yesterday, I had to come up with excuses to take our young children in and out
of our back door whenever we left the house, so that they wouldn't see the
blood splattered all over our sidewalk as a result of the Howard students'
bloody brawl on our street. This is unacceptable. It took me gallons of bleach
to clean it up last night.
From
my understanding of the incident, the altercation was first initiated from a
robbery by local young men victimizing a handful of Howard Students. I can
relate to this, as I've been robbed at gunpoint late at night by a group of
local young men. However, the mob justice retaliation by your students
resulting in a massive street fight is behavior that your office must take
immediate action to address. At this moment, your students are presenting more
danger in our community than the drug dealers who have been here for years.
This is besmirching the reputation of your esteemed institution, and not what I
would expect from a school like Howard.
Clearly
this is a situation of a small percentage of your students tainting the
reputation of the student body. I hope you will take immediate and appropriate
action to address this issue and to respond to the concerns of the community.
Sincerely,
Neighbor
on the 100 Block of V Street NW
Reports on the Saturday Night Hulaballoo on V
Streeet NW and Elsewhere
a) First, from a resident on the 100 block of V
Street NW:
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 10:11 AM
Subject: Melee on V Street Last Night
All,
Just
a heads up to what occurred on the 100 block of V street last night. About 2:00 am, several of my neighbors and I
were awakened to the sound of some college-aged kids yelling on the
street. At first, it seemed like the
not-infrequent experience of kids having a bit too much fun on a Saturday night
and not respecting their neighbors. I
got up and watched from my window as what looked like about 8 people suddenly
turned into about 20 people, yelling at each other and doing the ``bring it on
and let`s fight`` body posture. Events
spiraled downward rapidly with one kid swinging a long wooden stick (like a
thinner 2x4), other kids throwing bricks, and a fight breaking out between
several people in the middle of the street.
By this time, several of us had called the police who showed up within a
minute or two. As soon as the kids heard
the police, they scattered, many of them running around the police cars as they
were parking.
The
next several hours involved the police cordoning off of the sidewalk which is
splattered in some cases and drizzled in others with blood, interviewing
witnesses, speaking with some of the kids at Howard, bringing in a detective
for more interviews, and then being parked on the street with lights flashing
till morning. According to the police`s
initial thoughts, the fight was between Howard students and locals, perhaps
originating at one of the neighborhood parties.
During the V street brawl, several kids were stabbed. According to the bleeding kids who had
returned to Carver Hall, they had been jumped by the locals earlier that
evening and had confronted them later on V.
The
common question being asked by my neighbors and me is why no one was arrested? According to the police, they didn`t see
anyone fighting. As for the boys who
were stabbed and obviously a part of this, the police said that they have no
proof that these boys were not simply victims who were defending themselves.
And neither the boys who were fighting nor the girls who were videotaping it
with their phones were likely to work with the police to find the perpetrators.
Needless
to say, this is a bit frustrating, since several of us witnessed it and did not
see a group of thugs jumping a group of students. Rather, it looked like what the boys
described -- a planned confrontation.
Although I don`t think any of us want to see innocent kids arrested, you
have to wonder what kind of message it sends to them that they can choose to
settle a dispute in this way with no repercussions. Also, my point is not to
denigrate the police, but the experience has me wondering if their lack of
effort to detain anyone is based on the District having no anti-loitering laws.
You
can draw your own conclusions, but my takeaway is to be extra vigilant on
evenings when there are lots of parties, call the police at the first sign of
anything suspicious and videotape as much as you can as evidence.
Hopefully,
the guys who got stabbed are okay, and someone will care enough about the kids
responsible for the melee (who may also include the kids who got stabbed) to
make sure they don`t behave so poorly in the future.
b) Now see this message from Marc Morgan,
President, LeDroit Park Civic Association:
From:
Marc Morgan
Sent:
Sunday, September 23, 2012 11:55 AMSubject: Melee on V Street Last Night
I
saw most of this disturbance late last night, called MPD, who responded
immediately. I then followed up with Howard Campus Police, which parked at Elm
and 4th most if the night.
I
didn`t witness any violence, but there was a massive crowd of kids moving
through 4th, Elm, 3rd and up towards V st.
I
have notified Howard University officials, again to demand immediate attention
and resolution to this on going problem. In addition, I will speak to the
landlords on Elm st ( I think this is where most of the disturbance began) and
ask that they be more firm and strict with their Howard tenants.
Last
night was beyond just noise from a party...I thought I was in the middle of a
night club!
More
to come
Marc
Morgan
c) From a 1st Street NW resident:
I`m
not sure why, but there is an unusually loud and aggressive group of kids in
the neighborhood this year.
Friday
night the chaos was more focused on 1rst and U but I saw the cops come half a
dozen times up and down first to get folks to scatter and kids were settling in
on random stoops up and down the block in a two to three block radius.
More
girls than usual, louder than the corner folks get, particularly belligerent.
I`ve lived here 5 years and it`s unusual.
Tne
funny note was when a cop questioned out the window of it`s cruiser to to guys
sitting on a stoop...``You live there?``
``Yeah,`` they answered. ``What`s
your address number?`` Kid looks around to try to see what the address is... Cop
laughs and speeds away.
+++
Looks like Dr. Griffin has already responded:
On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 11:38 AM, Griffin, Barbara L.J. wrote:
+++
Looks like Dr. Griffin has already responded:
On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 11:38 AM, Griffin, Barbara L.J.
Dear
[resident on the 100 block of V Street NW]:
Thank
you for your email. I do appreciate your
very balanced perspective. It is most
appreciated. Yes, I have heard of the
incident and was very upset and disturbed by it when it first came to my
attention Sunday morning at approximately 3:45 a.m. Chief Leroy James and the Howard University
Office of Public Safety are investigating now.
I do assure you that Howard does not and would not condone the vigilante
brand of behavior as you have described in your email. To be victimized is one thing. To be aggressive in seeking retaliation is
another. You are quite right! We would not ever tolerate our students
becoming involved in “thuggish” behavior.
We have been a part of this community for over 150 years, and we do not
suffer lightly the besmirching of the Howard.
Please allow us to work quickly to sort out the facts and I will be back
to you as quickly as I can. We are all
working on this, as I am writing to you.
Sincerely,
Barbara
Griffin
To: Griffin, Barbara L.J.
Subject: Re: Saturday Night's Street Fight
From:
[resident on the 100 block of V Street NW]:
Sent:
Monday, September 24, 2012 11:41 AMTo: Griffin, Barbara L.J.
Subject: Re: Saturday Night's Street Fight
Thank
you for your prompt reply, Dr. Griffin. I trust your office will find a
solution to ensure this remains an isolated incident.
3 comments:
Councilman McDuffie needs to be brought into this also. I am sure he would be disappointed to see how the school he graduated from has really come down to admitting a lot of less then desirable people to the university
How does one isolated incident, that is being handled by the University, amount to the University admitting "a lot" of "less than desirable people" to the University? Just a simple question. Do you have statistics to quantify " a lot"?
this is not an isolated incident. There have been multiple incident in and around the neighborhood since the semester started. I talk to people who are Howard alumni and live in this neighborhood who say that the school has lowered its standards of admission and are surrprised at the lack of quality students attending Howard compared to when they attended
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