What: Safer Streets Demonstration
Who: Shaw and Mount Vernon Square Residents,
Convention Center Community Assoc. and Mt Vernon Square Neighborhood Assoc.
Where: 11th Street & New York Avenue NW
When: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 12:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Contact: Martin Moulton
Convention Center Community Assoc (CCCA-online.org)
(202) 422-1161
The MVSNA, CCCA and local residents want to send a clear message to City officials, Join us rain or shine, at noon, Tues. April 13 at 11th St & NY Ave. NW (children are welcome): Secure ShawEvery Day!
Citizens Demand Safer Streets During Global Security Summit
For Immediate Release — Residents in the Shaw and Mount Vernon Square neighborhoods will demonstrate for increased neighborhood security on Tuesday, April 13, 2010, during the Nuclear Security Summit. Residents want local authorities to give every day security the same attention they give special events like the Summit.
“The DC Council must enact stronger anti-gang legislation including a loitering law and civil injunctions,” said attorney Cary Silverman, president of the Mt Vernon Square Neighborhood Assoc. “DC must reform our juvenile justice system and establish a system for tracking statistics on all functions of the criminal justice system. Increased police presence in the area is needed all the time.”
As the world’s top leaders gather to discuss the global threat of nuclear arms and terrorism, city leaders in Washington DC fail to effectively address the gang violence that plagues several Wards across the District of Columbia, including the communities surrounding the Walter E Washington Convention Center. The Center is named after the District’s first Mayor who ran the city during the devastating riots of the 1960’s, in the wake of Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination, which neighborhoods like Shaw have yet to recover from.
The Convention Center is visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, comparable to the number of visitors who visit the Capital City’s world renowned monuments; yet, unlike those sites, the Center is located in one of Ward 2’s most violent neighborhoods. Homeland Security has set up a local command center during the summit at the nearby Kennedy Recreation Center, which has been the site of many shootings — one shooting on the very night of President Barack Obama’s election — which led to the creation of a post for two on-site police officers at all times.
“Shaw will be under lock down during the summit to protect world leaders,” said Martin Moulton, president of the Convention Center Community Association. “We need the city to focus more on protecting local residents.”
The goal of the Summit is to produce a communiqué calling for a crackdown on smuggling, support for past U.N. resolutions and other global safety measures. The goal of local residents is to bring peace and calm to a community where violent gangs terrorize local families, senior citizens, and students.
The Nuclear Security Summit may be the only time this year when local residents feel safe. The Mayor,
DC Council, and DC Superior Court officials should hold a local security summit to find solutions on how
to keep neighborhoods free of violence.
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Bates Area Civic Association 