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.”
Tags: Bill 18-595, Clark Ray, Crime, DC Council At-Large, DC Council At-Large Candidate, Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, Juvenile Crime, Neighborhood and Victims Rights Amendment Action of 2010
