Generally, I prefer to discuss items that are safely consigned to history when I post here, but recent events in my little corner of the Hill have forced me to confront “real” life.
The last month or so has brought an upsurge in rock throwing incidents by students from Eliot-Hine Jr. High. The pattern is clear, and repetitive. The students walk down 17th Street NE/SE, pick up rocks from a landscape bed on the corner of 17th and A Street, and continue down A Street, SE, towards the Stadium-Armory Metro Station.
This first came to my attention as I was getting my daughters out of our car one afternoon, about a month ago, on the 1800 block of A Street. I heard a thump and saw a rock lying next to me. Surprised, I turned around and saw a bunch of kids laughing at me. Somewhat befuddled, I still didn’t piece it together until a few of the boys threw a few more rocks at me; this time as I had my 21 month old in my arms.
It took a few minutes to register. These kids, without provocation, were standing there throwing rocks at me as I held a small child. The elements were all there, but my brain refused to put it together.I hardly think of my neighborhood as perfectly safe, and we’ve had our share of muggings, assaults, drug crimes, and even a murder or two. But all of those made sense, in a sad and totally unacceptable sort of way. This casual, and even gleeful, violence did not, and still does not.
Of course I reported it, as well as subsequent incidents we saw through the weeks that followed. Unfortunately, despite MPD’s very aggressive patrolling and speedy follow up, the pattern continues. Almost daily, at 4:45 pm, they come through, chucking rocks at people, houses and cars.
Tuesday, as the mob approached, I decided to film it. I had quite enough of telling the patrol officer that the suspects were “12-15 year old African-American males (and one or two females) wearing khaki pants and a black jacket.” I wanted a better description.
I stepped outside with only camera I had available: my iPhone. I started taping a group of eight students or so come down the street, having wrapped up a shoving match further down. As I was filming, a rock hit me in the head. Foolishly, I had thought I was perfectly safe, as previous incidents had showed that their aim was commensurate with their maturity. Fortunately, except for a slight headache and a bloody nose, I was unharmed. The video is here, and if you listen closely you can hear the sound of the rock hitting my head and then the ground.
Then the real fun started. I went down, exchanged a few words with them, and ended up chasing them to the Metro, a few doors down. I saw a Metro employee standing at the top of the escalator, and felt a sense of relief. Excellent! Some help, at last. I thought maybe we could catch these kids for a change. I yelled “Call the police, those kids just hit me!” It failed to break through his apathy. I moved closer, dodging disgruntled commuters annoyed that I would dare use a crosswalk on 19th Street. I yelled again. This time, he heard me and responded “you’ve got a cell phone, call them yourself.” Stunned, I moved closer and told him for a third time to call the police. He turned his back to me, and resumed talking to his friend, shaking his head, and saying “some people just think the world revolves around him.” At this point, I might have actually been angrier at him than the rock-throwing kids. I went up to him and said “I’ve just been hit in the head with a rock, can you call the cops?” His response: “You want another one?” Somehow, I managed to walk away before my head literally exploded.
Unfortunately, I did not get his name, but at this point I did call the cops. The police responded, and were as frustrated as I was, although altogether unsurprised at the Metro employee’s attitude. We went through the now familiar ritual of filling out a report, and once again I was impressed with the seriousness which MPD is taking this. Officer Jerome, in particular, was very helpful. It was encouraging for me to see that MPD took the incident as personally as I did.
Their attention to the matter continued yesterday. I’ve been in close contact with several folks in MPD, and they are very serious in stopping this. They’ve put me in contact with Eliot-Hine Jr. High’s principal as well as DCPS’s Chief of Family and Public Engagement. I hope to hear from them soon (with an understanding that today is a holiday), and hopefully we can cut this problem off at the source.
I have also been in contact with Metro, and perhaps that we can get some progress there as well. I couldn’t care less about the employee I ran into (mostly), but I hope that more Metro staffers take customer service, and more importantly, public safety seriously. If they need lessons, they can ask Ms. Evans, Stadium-Armory’s morning station manager, who is unfailingly friendly and responsive. It can be done, folks. I would like to hear more from Metro than, “we don’t have jurisdiction for crimes off of Metro property.” True enough, but you shouldn’t be the getaway driver either.
Finally, I would ask that anyone else that sees activity like this to call the cops and report it. I didn’t report the first few instances I saw because it was obvious that the kids would be safely in the Metro before MPD responded. That was a mistake, and I ask you not to make it.
I hope by today at 4:45 pm, this problem has been solved. Feel free to come by and see. I’ll be the guy on his front porch with the camera.
THIH Update: Here is the coverage of Tim’s story on WUSA9 and ABC7 New:
Since I wrote this, there’ve been a few developments I thought I should share:
1. This story was covered last night by Channel 7 and channel 9.
2. I continue to be in contact with MPD reps, who assuring me that this will continue to be a priority.
3. I had a very productive meeting with Eliot-Hine Jr. High’s principal, Mr. Jackson, who came by the house today with his School Resource Officer, Officer Goodwin. Principal Jackson is very interested in identifying the students involved and holding them accountable. He will take steps at the school today to address the students and asks if anyone else sees this behavior to report it, and better yet, get pictures to try to identify those actually responsible, which we all agree is most likely a very small percentage of his student body.
4. Nothing yet from Metro in regards to the complaint I filed.
tim: write a letter to jim graham, since he’s the chair of the wmata board, and let him know that you feel that customer service is a place where metro is failing. let him know that, as a business, it’s their job to make sure that customers are happy. let him know that they shouldn’t be in the habit of employing people who, as the public face of the business, are indifferent or even hostile towards the people they are supposed to be trying to help.
i really think that more of us need to do that to make it clear that it’s not acceptable for wmata to continue to give true customer service the short shrift.
Excellent advice, I’ll do exactly that.
One more update:
It’s become increasingly obvious that it most likely was not Eliot-Hine Jr. High school kids. Their principal, Mr. Jackson, has been working closely with me throughout the day to identify the kids and finding out what school they do belong to, which I’ll not name so as to avoid making the same mistake twice. My apologies to him, and the students of Eliot-Hine. Principal Jackson continued to help me out, long after it became apparent it was probably not his kids.
Additionally, I’ve had representatives from other schools in the area contact me to see what they could do to help, and to make sure their kids were behaving themselves.
I don’t understand why you let the scumbag at Metro off the hook — “you want another one?” clearly constitutes a threat; were I you, I’d seek to have him charged with harassment and be put out of a job. There’s too much tolerance for this anti-social behavior at every level.
I’m trying to find out who it was. At the time, I was still holding out hope that we could catch the kids involved so I focused on getting hold of the police.
I really wish I had gotten his name. I’ve filed a complaint with Metro, but unlike DCPS and MPD, they’re not exactly tripping over themselves to get back to me.
I’ll let folks know if we hear anything from WMATA.
I received a phone call from Gerald Francis, Deputy General Manager at Metro, who offered his assistance in this matter.
We talked about the behavior of the employee, which we of course agreed was not acceptable, but more importantly we discussed a plan for trying to put a stop to the behavior both in the neighborhood and in Metro.
Additionally, I received a phone call earlier from Tommy Wells, who was well appraised of the situation. I hadn’t called him yet as the various city agencies had all been very responsive in their own right. I did appreciate him reaching out to me and offering his help.
This is precisely why Residents should never use Landscape Stone in the front or sides of their homes in an urban neighborhood. Throwing of Stones as weapons has ocurred for thousands of years. These kids are doing it now, and in the future it will happen again with a different group of kids. It will continue. I would recommend notifying the owner of the property with the vast supply of stone in their yard requesting they remove the stone from the yard. The stone being there is enabling the problem and is a nuisance to Public Safety and Property.
Really Roger? Residents shouldn’t use landscape stones? Maybe these punks shouldn’t throw rocks!
Tim I admire your restraint. It’s a shame these kids haven’t crossed the wrong person who would have no qualms in causing severe bodily injury to them.
@ Roger. Really? Also, don’t use loaded handguns as a landscaping element.
I am the homeowner of the house with the gravel yard. When we bought the house 2 years ago the gravel yard was in place. I think its ridiculous for anyone to blame us, we have a right to have any kind of yard we want. These kids could be picking up dirt, or anything available and using it as weapons. If they want to cause trouble, they will find a way. Furthermore, it costs A LOT of money to take up all the stones and landscape a lawn. Roger, if you would like to help us out financially, or volunteer some manual labor that would be great. Otherwise, keep the unhelpful comments to yourself.
I would have to say that I can’t really hold the homeowner responsible. This isn’t a standard fixture in our corner of the neighborhood. This behavior is new this school year, and clearly a result of a specific group of kids that need to be addressed.
If I was landscaping Mollie’s house, I might not put in stones, but it’s quite unfair for her to go through the expense or trouble of removing them simply because some children were never taught “don’t throw stones at people”. The several hundred other kids that use Stadium-Armory Metro every day manage to get themselves back and forth to school without chucking a rock at someone, somehow these five to ten kids need to learn how as well.
I’d recommend to them they do it soon.
First of all, I am sorry to hear that a Hill East Neighbor was injured by stones being thrown by disruptive kids and thankful it seems permanent injury did not happen. Everyone’s mere hope that it won’t reoccur is not a sound answer. Prevention is something that immediate neighbors should engage in towards limiting future reoccurrences. Removing lanscape items that are easily used as weapons is important.
Tiberius, CJ & Molly – Shoot the messenger seems OK in your posts, then so be it.
Molly- here on this Blog in your own post, you have admitted current ownership of the NW corner house at 17th & A Sts SE, one that seemingly has truckloads of stone in the public space. When the previous owner had placed the stone there during 2004(?), I thought what a dumb idea and knew that eventually someone would get hurt. It has now happened. Since you now have ownership, these stones are your responsibility with never-ending potential liability to public safety. The property was also identified on local TV News broadcast with no comment from the owner. You may already be on some attorney’s radar screen because of that broadcast. If you don’t like that either then go raise hell with the TV news too. It’s rather arrogant of you to ask of me, an innocent non affected 3rd party, to contribute financially to your dilemma. I don’t readily have the money to fix your property’s problem. You may not like nor appreciate what I post here, take it as economical advice versus being served a court summons from an attorney representing an injured party. I hope you have adequate Homeowner Insurance since everything you own is on the line while that stone exists there. Good Luck to you.
Molly – Please believe that I am not attacking you, but expressing a neighborly concern for everyone’s safety and wellbeing here including your own. I also wish people would not throw stones, it’s just impractical, but limit their quick and easy access to small stones.
Some scenarios for everyone to *THINK* about:
What if the story had been a neighbor whose eye got knocked causing blindness by a stone thrown by one of the kids. The kids were caught and they point to a nearby yard with large amounts of stone as the source. The kid’s parents have no assets, but the homeowner does. Several lawsuits could unfold with homeowner unwillingly pulled into the middle of it. Even if most unaffected folks say it’s frivolous, an accused homeowner would certainly require an attorney on retainer to represent the homeowner and hopefully protect the assets. Costs of Lawyers are not what average people budget for. It’s not a nice position to be in PERIOD. It’s all preventable; just don’t have stones in the yard.
Another scenario could be stones thrown at traffic on 17th Street causing an accident of multiple cars with a death. Witnesses to accident claim to have watched someone picking up stone from the front of a residence and throwing it at the cars. That’s not nice either.
Saying “I’m Sorry” once or a thousand times will never effectively make injured parties whole again. How would you feel if the negligence of a nearby neighbor indirectly contributed to your permanent handicap that forever altered your once happy life? That is also not a nice thought.
What is cheaper?
Remove the stone, avoid using stone or face a big uncertainty of liability 24/7/365 with potential lawsuit of personal injury or property damage? Take control of the elements that one can to prevent bad situations.
I am a concerned resident of Hill East too, I’ve experienced kids throwing stones at me too and also witnessed their throwing stones at windows on buildings & parked cars. I took control of the situation when I pulled out a camera, started taking pictures of them, asked them to stop, that caused them to scurry away around the corner screaming of fear the police would get them. They seemed like good kids but perhaps got influenced from other kids that stone throwing is “fun” thing to do. This happened on my way from Metro during May 2007, I did call 911 but did not follow-up with MPD because I was fortunate not to be hurt.
I am all about SAFETY, PREVENTION and LIMIT of LIABILITY. Landscape stone is not in my yard or yards of my neighbors since it could contribute to much danger. I’ve expressed safety and prevention in person to my immediate neighbors and they respect me and equally share similar concerns. People who read this faceless blog, may or may not know me in person. HGTV and other home improvement channels have shows using Stone for landscaping all the time. In some instances it’s great, but in our urban neighborhood with plenty of foot traffic of all types of people, small stones are a continuous liability. Sure it’s way too easy to blame the disruptive kids, but when weapons are easily reachable to them or anyone, the blame easily becomes a shared issue.
The stones have already contributed to this one unfortunate heinous act. I am not an attorney, but do work in the field that supports public safety of millions of people every day. Don’t like what I have written, then by all means consult with a reputable attorney of your own choosing, get their professional opinions about what has transpired here and potential liability associated to similar future events. Their advice could be similar, reduce one’s liability by not having small stone in landscape easily reachable by transient pedestrians and thrown.
that guy doesnt have sufficient information becuase the kids who did it doesnt even attend eliot high school
and i seen that guy punch one other kid in the face while coming home from work
recently around about 4.40 in the after noon
idk,
I’ve noted in the comments that the kids did not come from Eliot-Hine.
And you’re quite right that there was another incident Friday, although you very much have the sequence of events wrong.
all i seen was da dude tim punch 1 of da kids n their face and da kids wasnt havin it so they kids beat his lil ass
Why are you surprised that this is happening?
I grew up in DC & can’t believe you don’t expect this kind of behavior everyday.
Tim, I think it takes a lot to follow up on all of this and it benefits everyone in the neighborhood. Thank you.
i will give this to my SO who works for WMATA.
this is happening all over the metro system.
it’s not, as they say, an isolated incident and he really should NOT have asked you if you wanted another rock thrown at you.
imgoph is right in that MORE of us have to write to metro when these things occur.
also i am sorry you got rocked in the head. jeesh.
This would have all turned out a little differently if it happened in Texas where I am. Threats with a deadly weapon? for