D.C. offers amnesty to people who let police search their homes for guns, drugs

JINXR · 03-13-2008, 10:50 AM

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot... you've got to be shitting me.

Quote:

Police initiate search for guns

By David C. Lipscomb
March 13, 2008

The Metropolitan Police Department yesterday announced a new crime initiative that will include officers going into high-crime neighborhoods to search homes for illegal guns.

"The premise is that residents can have the trust of the ...department," said police spokeswoman Traci Hughes.

Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced the program and said it focuses on parents or legal guardians who think their children have a gun in the house and are uncomfortable with searching for it themselves.

Miss Hughes said that residents would be given amnesty for illegal guns found in homes after they are tested for links to crimes. But she said police would investigate the source of the guns if they were found to be involved in a crime.

She said another primary intent of the initiative is to get guns away from young people, particularly those in small street gangs called crews, who get them for protection or to attack rivals.

D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson, chairman of the council's public safety committee, said the search program "could be touch-and-go" and its success will hinge on how officers execute the requests.

"The idea that this is going to be a peaceful, friendly invitation to enter the home may not work," said Mr. Mendelson, at-large Democrat.

The program will begin March 24 to coincide with D.C. Public Schools' spring break and will run indefinitely, Miss Hughes said.

The program will not offer cash incentives as the gun-buyback programs do.

Officer Kristopher Baumann, head of the union that represents the city's police, said the group "supports any well thought out plan to reduce violence."

However, he hopes the department has considered potential problems with advertising amnesty while checking for guns connection to crimes.

Mr. Mendelson, who last year criticized Chief Lanier's community policing strategy amid a spike in crime, gave generally positive marks to two other parts of new initiatives — the introduction of an anonymous crime tip hot line and the application of the city's CapStat data-tracking process to monitor illegal guns.

The number to the tip line will be advertised on electronic signs on patrol cars.

In December, police attributed about a dozen shootings and hundreds of shots fired in and around the Columbia Heights neighborhood to retaliation by several crews over the fatal shooting in August of Tayon Glover, the brother of local musician and TV actor Anwan "Big G" Glover.

Though violence among crews calmed going into the new year, it resurfaced in a couple of shootings last month between groups in the Shaw neighborhood near the Washington Convention Center.

Mr. Mendelson and D.C. Council member Marion Barry, Ward 8 Democrat, are scheduled to hold a joint committee hearing on crews today.

StreetPharmacist · 03-13-2008, 10:52 AM

Good idea. It saves 1 person from getting shot its worth it. Not like the cops are gonna find the guns otherwise,till someone gets shot,and even then they probably will never catch the shooter unless he's got a big mouth.

bush · 03-13-2008, 10:58 AM

Bad idea. This spreads the Nanny State mentality.

stryder · 03-13-2008, 11:02 AM

I agree, bad idea.

Lets say they get all the guns connected to crimes. They let a probable murderer off the hook, they clean up cold cases. Now all the bad elements are just going to get a new crop of guns. Its not like they are not available out there.

clockworkjon · 03-13-2008, 11:10 AM

Bad idea. Its based on parents who think their kid has a gun. How many parents are clueless and how many don't give a shit? The parents who probably don't give a shit, most likely have the worst kids, with the most guns, and cause the most trouble. Maybe they'll catch a few first-timers, new crew members who aren't too far gone yet and just got caught up with the wrong people. Shitty plan.

F4sSprintST · 03-13-2008, 11:13 AM

mikem317 · 03-13-2008, 11:49 AM

Boston PD started a similar program last year. Not sure of it's progress. It's aim was to ask the homeowner if they can search the home for weapons.

bumblebee · 03-13-2008, 12:48 PM

Once they get people conditioned to permissive searches, it is a short jump to "you don't have anything to hide do you?" searches and then their goal of "we don't need no stinkin' warrants, we're coming in."

Welcome to America...1984

malik ross · 03-13-2008, 12:58 PM

bad idea. everyone has the right to bear arms. shouldn't matter how they got them. i bet Thomas Jefferson and George Washington didn't have a 3 day cooling off period. no one cared where you got your gun from then either. no cared if you were a felon either. all this paperwork and paperchains and cooling off are just a another notch towards the the death of 2a.

kevin_stevens · 03-13-2008, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bumblebee

Once they get people conditioned to permissive searches, it is a short jump to "you don't have anything to hide do you?" searches and then their goal of "we don't need no stinkin' warrants, we're coming in."

Welcome to America...1984

+1

This doesn't have anything to do with guns, or only indirectly. It's a step in the breaking down of the 4th Amendment.

KeS

bush · 03-13-2008, 01:27 PM

Never! Government only wants to protect us and care for us!

LDS · 03-13-2008, 01:42 PM

Keep that shit up, and all posts on the internet will have to be 'proofread' by the authorities before long...

killernoodle · 03-13-2008, 01:43 PM

This is worse than gun buyback programs, at least gun buyback programs give you money and don't interfere with your privacy.

R1oldguy · 03-13-2008, 01:43 PM

great idea.

i wonder if they find a kilo of junk, and a "nine" in the babies diaper, they will still consider the free pass.

bull**it

bumblebee · 03-13-2008, 03:36 PM

I don't believe they will give a free pass for anything they find