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The Vox Box

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  3. "Welcome to Baghdad, D.C."

“Welcome to Baghdad, D.C.”

(From the "may-I-see-your-papers-please? department)

I usually do not like to editorialize too much here - I like to let you squabble in the comments. However, this is an issue I feel we really need to address. It is scary and it is happening now.

The title comes from a statement by Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the ACLU in D.C. His organization is contemplating legal action against the Washington Police Department for their "military-style checkpoints"

More on this issue from The Washington Post:

D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced a military-style checkpoint yesterday to stop cars this weekend in a Northeast Washington neighborhood inundated by gun violence, saying it will help keep criminals out of the area.

Officers will check drivers' identification and ask whether they have a "legitimate purpose" to be in the Trinidad area, such as going to a doctor or church or visiting friends or relatives. If not, the drivers will be turned away.

"In certain areas, we need to go beyond the normal methods of policing," [Mayor Adrian] Fenty (D) said at a news conference announcing the action. "We're going to go into an area and completely shut it down to prevent shootings and the sale of drugs."

The article goes on to say that the police reserve the right to extend the program even more.

America has always been characterized by freedom of movement from one end of the country to the other, let alone within your own city. This all sounds sort of Nazi-ish to me.

I also find it interesting that citizens who paid for the roads need permission to use them!

However, even if you let the obvious civil liberties issues go, this is still an ineffective way to prevent crime:

Pedestrians will not be stopped, which is something critics say might render the program ineffective.

"I guess the plan is to hope criminals will not walk into neighborhoods," said D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large). "I also suppose the plan is to take the criminal's word for it when he or she gives the police a reason for driving into a neighborhood."

So, in the end, we have here a possibly unconstitutional, definately unAmerican, and not very effective way of preventing violent crime.

Let the commenting fun commence.

In 2006, then-editor Steve Smith of The Spokesman-Review had the idea of starting a publication for an often forgotten audience: teenagers. The Vox Box was a continuation of the Vox, an all-student staffed newspaper published by The Spokesman-Review. High school student journalists who staffed the Vox made all content decisions as they learn about the trade of journalism. This blog's mission was to give students an opportunity to publish their voices. The Vox Box and the Vox wrapped up in June 2009, but you can follow former staffers' new blog at http://voxxiez.blogspot.com.