“Congratulations to Lynne Brown, Kevin Naff, Brian Pitts and the whole team at the Washington Blade. You kept the soul of the paper alive through the DC AGENDA and we are all excited about the return of the Washington Blade. The LGBT community is better off because of your efforts.” -Clark Ray
“Hearings isolated from the community are not a substitute for action”
The recent shootings on South Capitol Street that left five people with bullet wounds and four dead-two of them children, were the focus at the hearing held by the DC Council Committee on Public Safety and Judiciary, whose Chairman, Phil Mendleson, once told DC residents that crime is not a legislative issue.
Clark Ray, candidate for DC Council, At-Large, said, “My opponent, who presides over the Public Safety and Judiciary Committee, apparently continues to believe that hearings on crime in the community should be as isolated and detached from the community as he is.” Ray continued, “I have continued to demand that these hearings be held in the neighborhoods where the shootings occurred. Instead, he continues to hold hearings in the Wilson Building, which, as far as we know, does not have a crime problem.” Ray added, “Holding hearings about crime in the community on a Monday morning at 9:30 a.m.-a time when most working parents must be at work and when most youth should be in school -shuts out the most important voices.”
During that hearing, Mendelson’s response to the angry concerns of the parents whose children were gunned down was: “If you are angry, you have every right to be angry. There have to be consequences.”
In response Ray said, “Parents do have a right to be angry, but not just at the perpetrators of this horrible crime. Although the system that allows tragedies like this to occur is not a new problem, it is a problem my opponent has not only failed to fix, it is one he has failed even to address. This failure of leadership has already produced consequences.”
Ray stated, “We must all recognize that criminals are not born; they are made. The city must ensure that the young men accused of this crime face justice. But the Council must also do more for youth and young-adult offenders. It must rebuild the Department of Youth Rehabilitative Services (DYRS) to serve the community the way it was intended. It must hold youth offenders in secure facilities from which they cannot simply walk out. DYRS does not have a “Revolving Door” issue – we have an “Open Door” issue, and we need to address it now.
Ray noted, “A community only gets the law enforcement it demands. We must demand that the Council, especially the Public Safety and Judiciary Committee Chairman, do more than hold hearings. Hearings and meetings are tools of the Council, but they are not a substitute for action.”
Ray continued, “The Council must support, expand, and help replicate programs, like the HOPE Project and the Latin American Youth Center, that provide education assistance, job and technical training, career coaching and placement, GED exam preparation, and professional development to the city’s youth. The Council must ensure the city’s laws are strong and targeted enough to prevent tragedies like this one. And the Public Safety and Judiciary Committee and its Chair must show real leadership to ensure residents and police can keep their neighborhoods and families safe.”
Ray, a former reserve police officer in DC, called on the Council to work with legal experts, the courts, and members of the community to pass new legislation NOW. That legislation needs to strengthen community policing programs and workforce-development programs, to attack not only the results of violent crime, but also its roots. “When I join the Council,” Ray said, “I will insist on direct action to reduce crime, including fixing the juvenile justice system to do more than just produce older criminals. I know crime is as much a legislative issue as it is an issue for the community the Council serves.
Washington, DC–Clark Ray, candidate for DC City Council, At-Large, made the following statement this morning regarding the passing of Dorothy Height:
“Today, an icon has passed. Dorothy Height meant so much to so many people. Her long life of service to civil rights, and to women’s rights–as an advocate for justice for everyone–may never be matched again.
“She was recognized by a President and by the Congress, but I am sure what meant even more to her was the love she received from people around the world for whom she advocated.
“Her legacy of moving America forward and fighting for a better life for people across the world will be felt forever.
“Dorothy Height had a particularly close relationship to the people of the District of Columbia. I hope District officials quickly begin exploring avenues by which she could be honored in some permanent manner in our city.”
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Washington, DC–Clark Ray, Candidate for City Council, At-Large, said, “My partner Aubrey and I are especially proud to live in the District of Columbia as we celebrate Emancipation Day—the day President Lincoln first freed thousands of slaves in DC, months before the rest of the country’s slaves were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. As in the past, DC still serves as a shining example of the best this country has to offer.
“Yet, as we commemorate this day, I urge my fellow DC residents to remember the words of President Kennedy: ‘While we point with pride to the strides we have made in fulfilling our forefathers’ dream of the equality of man, let us not overlook how far we still have to go.’
“As a candidate for Council, At-Large, I am committed to ensuring we go still further: I pledge to fight for full voting representation in Congress,” Ray said. “On this Emancipation Day, I will be on Capitol Hill to demand our rights—in Lincoln’s words, to assure freedom to the free—as I continue our fight to bring statehood to the District of Columbia and to bring full voting rights, at long last, to all of its residents.
Ray is no stranger to Capitol Hill. In the Clinton-Gore administration, he served under Secretary Mike Espy in the Office of Congressional Relations.
Talking Crime, and H.O.P.E., from Anacostia
City Council holds an important hearing on crime Monday, April 19 (“Neighborhood and Victims Rights Amendment Act”). Council should literally hold these crime hearings in affected communities across DC. Crime isn’t up around the Wilson Building where Council meets–it’s shattering lives out in the neighborhoods. I visited friends at the H.O.P.E. Project in Anacostia, where dynamic youth are building their futures, and asking us to listen to them. — Clark Ray
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Clark Ray, former Reserve Police Officer and candidate for D.C. City Council, At-Large, today stated that an important upcoming City Council hearing on crime should be moved from the sterile confines of City Hall to the actual neighborhoods that have been affected so deeply by unchecked gun crimes and other violence.
“We cannot continue to treat D.C. as two cities: The John A. Wilson building and everywhere else,” Ray said. “Crime isn’t centered around the Wilson building. It’s destroying neighborhoods—especially east of the river. Let’s hold the hearings there. This is no time for business as usual.”
Even before recent violence shattered the peace of several neighborhoods, the City Council had planned an April 19 hearing on Bill 18-595, the “Neighborhood and Victims Rights Amendment Act of 2010.” The hearing is expected to become a focal point of debate over crime, in light of a rash of recent gun violence.
“My opponent, the Chair of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, said earlier this year that crime was not a legislative issue,” Ray said. He continued, “It seems his constituents may have convinced him otherwise. Now is the time to open Council’s eyes to the realities in the city’s most vulnerable, crime-ravaged neighborhoods.”
Focus on Juvenile Crime
Ray also called for the hearing to be expanded drastically in scope to explore solutions to juvenile crime. “Let’s hold these hearings for not one but two days, or all week, if that’s what it takes, to hear from people dealing with troubled youth, to hear from parents and community leaders,” Ray said.
“Let’s end what the Washington Post called a ‘timid’ and ‘indecisive’ stewardship of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee. Let’s remember that a community only gets the law enforcement it insists on. So let’s go beyond delicately debating proposed legislation. Let’s learn from the community what’s working and what’s not. Let’s go directly to the neighborhoods and people we need to help and protect, to learn what they think is needed to end the revolving door that allegedly allowed a juvenile offender with nine previous convictions to drive a car from which nine people were shot, some with an AK-47-style assault rifle.”
“The recent murders of children in D.C. by other children reminds us that we must address critical issues like whether to give judges more control over sentencing, whether our current facilities for juvenile offenders are sufficient, and what kind of services, education, and training, we can provide to juvenile offenders who are incarcerated, so we can break the cycle that allows young criminals to grow up into older, more dangerous criminals, and instead give them a future.”
“Crime in D.C. is certainly a legislative issue, but it’s not just a legislative issue. It’s everyone’s responsibility,” Ray said. “We deserve better from our City Council than a one-day hearing in the sterile confines of City Hall: Let’s take these hearings to the neighborhoods where the problems are at a tipping point, yet residents are struggling every day to find solutions—without enough help from their City Council.”
Clark Ray further called on the Committee to hold one of the hearings east of the river either in the evening or over a weekend, so that working parents would not be prevented from attending and instead can make their voices heard. Ray stated, “Excluding those parents who are most directly affected, whose children are constantly at risk, leaves the Council in the familiar position of enjoying the comfort of holding hearings without the discomfort of hearing the facts. The Council cannot continue business as usual while our children are murdering each other. We deserve better.”
WASHINGTON, DC — Clark Ray, candidate for DC City Council, At-Large, today began urging his supporters and all DC residents to contact their Councilmember to support passage of the “Healthy Schools Act.”
“Passage of the Healthy Schools Act is one solid step in response to the public health crisis we face in DC today,” Ray said.
“DC faces alarming rates of obesity, diabetes and other serious conditions. As former Director of Parks and Recreation, I know the importance of physical fitness and nutrition in building better lives for our residents.
“It is important that this Act apply to students at both traditional public schools, and also at charter schools. DC has a stewardship mandate to all of these students: good nutrition and information that will allow them to live a healthy, long and productive life.
“I ask every person in the District to call and email your Councilmember today and tell them you want them to pass the Healthy Schools Act, and to make the Act applicable to all children in schools receiving public funds.
“In addition to having comprehensive age-appropriate health education for all students, we know that our children are better learners when we help them improve their eating and exercise habits. They also provide a positive influence within their families.”
To reach your Councilmembers, please send an email
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