Clark Ray Statement on Recent Crime Tragedies
Posted Nov 16th 2009
I share the grief and suffering of the parents, family and friends who have lost an innocent 9-year-old boy shot to death in his home in Columbia Heights, and have compassion for those residents of Shaw who have been shaken by two recent shootings.
I also share the dismay of those community activists in Shaw who recently received an email from one Councilman who wrote that such violence is “not a legislative problem.”
Crime is everyone’s problem, and it must be the number one priority of our elected officials. We cannot play the blame game when it comes to solving crime and making our neighborhoods safe. There is a role for everyone including a major one for our legislators.
All the people of the District know that the Mayor, Council, police, prosecutors, churches and communities all have a role in protecting our families and neighborhoods. If no person is immune to the tragedies brought by crime, then no elected leader may claim selective exclusion from responsibility.
As a former reserve police officer, I know the many facets of this threat to our neighborhoods. If we cannot make our homes, schools, and neighborhoods safe places to live and work then we will not have made our City the place we all want it to be.
When I am on the DC City Council, I will be working with every group to craft legislation which will both make our neighborhoods safer and protect our civil liberties. I know there is no silver bullet to eradicating crime, but we must continue to work and not accept that making our communities safer and protecting the rights of the innocent are mutually exclusive. By working together we will be able to pass the legislation that gives law enforcement the tools they need to get criminals off our streets and to keep them off our streets. The current revolving door of justice is not serving us well.
Each of us has a role; each of us can effect change. It is time that every elected official recognize that they must place the safety of our families and neighborhoods as a top priority.
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Filed in Statements | One Comment
I find this posting quite interesting. Two things bother me: 1. Mr. Ray uses this shooting to politicize this issue and grandstand on his positions on public safety. And 2. I find it very hard to believe that Mendelson would simply write that this is not a legislative problem with no context, no nothing. And to quote from fellow Rosenstein-ite Cary Silverman’s blog as the authority? That’s reaching, at best. Must be not a whole lot going on in the Ray camp these days.