OPINION:
Several months ago, the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety of the District of Columbia Council held a public hearing to determine whether to confirm Mayor Muriel Bowser’s nominee, Pamela Smith, as District Metropolitan Police Chief.
Dozens of District citizens volunteered to testify at the hearing. Each witness was accorded just three or, if representing an organization, five minutes to express views regarding Ms. Smith. Most of the witnesses spoke in favor of Ms. Smith’s confirmation, although some did so with significant reservations due to Ms. Smith’s rather limited experience in law enforcement.
Several of the witnesses chose to unambiguously oppose her nomination. One of the speakers was particularly direct in his strong opposition to the Mayor’s nominee, and his remarks were eloquent and especially noteworthy. The gentleman, an African-American citizen of the District, expressed views not often heard in Washington’s halls of power.
The speaker was not interrupted while he made his remarks, but regrettably, his comments were also scarcely noted. They should have received better coverage. They merit careful consideration.
The witness identified himself as an officer of the Shaw East Central Civic Association and also as an officer of the Volunteer Red Hats Patrol, a civic group that seeks to promote public safety in distressed neighborhoods. He is a straight-talking individual who clearly does not mince words when it comes to a discussion about crime in Washington.
After having expressed serious reservations respecting Ms. Smith’s nomination, the gentleman launched a full frontal attack on the District of Columbia Council, many of whose members were present either in person or virtually, for its moral failures for rising crime in our city. In his brief remarks, he focused on a few critical conditions that few in our community are willing to articulate. In particular, he was very direct regarding the plague of violence that is afflicting many neighborhoods in Washington, especially those in which many of the residents are African-American.
He ascribed the deplorable conditions in the city to two principal causes. First, he castigated the City Council for having legalized marijuana. He called the situation created by that legalization “a cesspool of degenerate sexual behavior” and noted the highly destructive impact of marijuana on his community. He attributed the policy of marijuana legalization to a generation of new drug addicts, adding that because of marijuana, many young people are slipping into addiction to various, even more dangerous drugs because of this relatively recent decision by the members of the City Council. He also tied marijuana legalization to the increase in truancy among minority school students, noting that this deprives them of essential educational opportunities and to other anti-social behavior.
Then, he went on to attack the breakdown of the family in the minority community. In doing so, he focused on the terrible example created by misbehaving mothers and the absence of fathers. Importantly, he highlighted the failure to impose necessary discipline on young people as a major cause of delinquency.
The direct and undistilled words of the speaker were both enlightening and frightening. In an era of cancel culture, with an accompanying reluctance to offend anyone and, therefore, to speak unvarnished truths, this gentleman’s presentation was a powerful wake-up call. He was assuredly speaking truth to power since his words were being expressed directly to members of this city’s governing representatives. Importantly, his words were not couched in political doubletalk.
Not surprisingly, there was little, if any, reaction to his powerful words from those he was attacking. There was a polite Cheshire Cat-like smile from the Chair of the Committee before the hearing took place, who was very personally confronted by the witness’s remarks. None of the comments or follow-up questions from the Council panel sought to amplify or clarify the speaker’s observations.
Ms. Smith has now been confirmed as the District’s next police chief. Sadly, it can be expected that very little will change in how crime in the District of Columbia and its root causes are addressed. Yet, anyone who listened to and actually heard the witness would have to conclude that without dramatic change at a very grassroots level, it is not likely that the current epidemic of crime, heavily involving juveniles, will be reduced.
Perhaps it would be appropriate to recall the words often ascribed to Eldridge Cleaver, an African-American radical of times past: “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” Many of the members of the District of Columbia Council seem oblivious to the fundamental problems causing violence in our city. Not only are they apparently unwilling to help solve the problems afflicting our city, but they have assuredly already contributed plenty to aggravating those problems by legalizing marijuana, promoting racial bias through DEI policies, and failing to take any action seeking to reinforce the nuclear family and by effectively (albeit indirectly) reducing the ranks of our police force.
It is well past time to begin correcting some of the fundamental problems causing the steady breakdown of our local social order. But, to the extent that we live in a world where words such as those spoken at the Committee hearing could be considered out-of-touch or culturally insensitive, or, even worse, disregarded, it becomes difficult to see how the current situation can improve in the short term.
• Gerard Leval is a partner in the Washington, DC office of a national law firm. His book Lobbying for Equality, Jacques Godard and the Struggle for Jewish Civil Rights during the French Revolution was published by HUC Press in 2022.
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