9.21.2009

Briefly noted, 'hipster justice' Monday;

It's back to another week, and it looks like we aren't rid of the swamp-weather yet. At least it's nice and cool in the mornings.

Bad news: another murder. Derrick Marshall, 20, was gunned down Friday night in Southwest. Good news: MPD have made an arrest in the case, a 17-year-old has been charged.

Borderstan reports on a vigilante-style beat down of a mugger. Who knows how accurate this account is, but supposedly a couple 20-something "hipsters" chased down a mugger on U Street and started beating him in the gutter near Nellie's Sports Bar. I don't condone this behavior, since it's a bit risky--the mugger could have had a weapon. In this instance the mugger escaped with some injuries, and MPD was not involved. It's hard to say if it would have been safer or more prudent to restrain the assailant and wait for MPD to make an arrest. As it stands now, the so-called hipsters went from victims of robbery to perpetrators of (possibly) aggravated assault. But I bet it felt good. Hopefully this actually was the case of hipsters beating muggers, and not some pissed off kids beating someone up for the hell of it.

Another fire at the Embassy of Gabon. District fire officials are investigating a late-night fire in the basement of the embassy. There were no injuries but damage is estimated to be near $100,000. This is the second fire at the embassy in the last month, the previous fire being declared as arson. It's unclear the cause of this fire, though it may be related to the serious political turmoil going on within Gabon. It's always interesting to see how international crises play out here in DC.

As expected, Lanier appeals All Hands on Deck ruling. No surprise here, MPD Chief Lanier has appealed a federal labor board's ruling that the AHOD program must end. MPD's argument continues to be that these initiatives are necessary to reduce crime. According to the federal arbitrator and the DC police union, the measures violate officers' labor contract and the law. Lanier wants to argue the programs necessity and effectiveness. I don't understand how that's even relevant if the program violates the law. I bet we might see a reduction in crime if we made police work 24-hour shifts, everyday forever until those new police robots are developed. Who cares if it's legal or not. Heck, I bet we'd see a reduction in crime if we put up checkpoints around high crime areas and asked people for papers to enter. Right?

H Street Country Club to get even more ridiculous. The mini-golf location is now featuring expensive designer cocktails. PoP reports that mixologist Gina Chersevani will be assisting in their revamping of their drink menu. This will include artistic cocktails. And mini-golf. I'm still hoping for a place that will have skeeball, air hockey and fancy 'foam' cuisine served with handcrafted cocktails, dangerous pies, and charcuterie.

Photo from the H Street Festival by Francis Chung, via DCist. Not pictured: vigilante hipsters.

10 comments:

  1. Designer cocktails? I'd settle for no fruit flies. http://hillratdc.blogspot.com/2009/09/drinks-with-monkey.html

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  2. to knock down crime, i'd just like to see the cops respond more quickly to crime scenes and actually enforce the laws on the books...

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  3. SOVA has fruit flies too...

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  4. I was going to defend these people from the term "hipster" (what does that mean?)...until I saw your last point on H-street, and now I hate them again. Touche W.I.H.D.C.

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  5. having officers work crazy shifts is not making them more productive. They will be tired. The last thing we need is worn out cops on our streets.

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  6. PGC has a lotta fruit flies

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  7. I think Curtis has fruit flies in his underwear. Now it's time for my nape....

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  8. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

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  9. @DC Debutante, exactly. All Hands on Deck is terrible, it takes officers away from their usual beats and takes detectives off of investigations.

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  10. It was actually my friend who was the victim of teh attempted mugging. He is not in fact a hipster, but I guess that term can be used pretty loosely, whatevs. The guy asked for money, left, then came back and grabbed him, trying to pull his wallet out of his pocket. His friends grabbed the guy and apparently beat him up, so I suppose it's up to the individual to determine if this was right or wrong. I think they could have messed up his day a lot more...but that's me.

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