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The Old Man of Anacostia: Solving the Code of Silence
THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA HOUSING AUTHORITY
REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS (RFQ) SOLICITATION NO.: 0023-2020
BASELINE SERVICE PROVIDER
The District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) is accepting applications for Baseline Service Providers for services available throughout various DCHA properties.
SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS will be available on DCHA’s website at www.dchousing.org under “Business” and “Solicitations” beginning Monday, July 13, 2020.
DCHA will accept proposals on a rolling quarterly basis, beginning August 2020 through November 2021 for as long as DCHA has capacity.
SEALED PROPOSAL RESPONSES ARE DUE ON OR BEFORE 12:00 p.m. noon on the first Thursday of the quarter as follows: Thursday, August 13, 2020
Thursday, November 5, 2020 Thursday, February 4, 2021
Thursday, May 6, 2021 Thursday, August 5, 2021 Thursday, November 4, 2021 Email LaShawn Mizzell-McLeod, Contract Specialist at LMMCLEOD@dchousing.org with copy to business@dchousing.org for inquiries or additional information.
The Old Man of Anacostia Solving the Code of Silence
by Philip Pannell
Several years ago I decided The high number of unsolved homithat I would stay home on cides in our city is unacceptable. Unforthe Fourth of July because I tunately there is a code of silence in our cannot distinguish the sound community that contributes to it. “No of fireworks from gunshots. snitching” has emboldened some folks
This year in many east of the river to shoot people down with no fear of neighborhoods the Independence Day consequences. I am reminded of Dencelebrations started a week early and zel Washington in his film American many of the fireworks resulted in loud Gangster when his character is having explosions that went on all night. This lunch with his nephew and leaves the
Fourth of July was not celebratory for restaurant, goes outside, kills a man in me. I am still a second-class citizen befront of a crowd of people and returns to cause DC is not a state, COVID-19 has continue his lunch assured that no one me self-isolating and homicides have inwould say anything. In my opinion, a creased east of the river. These murders snitch should be considered a criminal have become more brazen with many of who is willing to “drop a dime” on anthem occurring in broad daylight and other criminal in order to receive lighter most of them unsolved. time or a shorter sentence. That should
POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS POLICE LINE DO NOT CR LINE DO NOT CROSS POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS PO have nothing to do with being a good cit- izen and giving information to bring mur- derers to justice. When people are murdered in DC, MPD issues fliers offering $25,000 for in- formation leading to an arrest and con- viction. The reward is too low. The fliers say that information can be given anony- mously. Let’s be real. Practically no one believes that you can contact the police anonymously. Phone calls, emails and texts can be traced and no one is going to personally go to a police station or in- vite the cops over to his or her home to give information. I propose that a public campaign be promoted where people can simply and anonymously drop a piece of paper in any U.S. Postal mailbox giving informa- tion about a homicide. Every Decem- ber children throughout our nation put letters to Santa Claus in mailboxes and volunteer efforts are made to respond to those letters. The U.S. Postal service calls it Operation Santa: https://beanelf. org/how-to-be-an-elf/. If kids can send letters to the North Pole, the DC police should be able to receive letters, cards or even scraps of paper giving informa- tion about murders. There is a down- side to my recommendation. If such a campaign is promoted, most likely there will be vandalism of mailboxes in highcrime neighborhoods. Then the federal government would be forced to get involved. So be it. Since the beginning of this year, there have been at least two murders per week east of the river. Where is the collective outrage about the continued killings in our neighborhoods? Don’t those deaths matter?
Philip Pannell is a long time Ward 8 commu- nity activist. He can be contacted at philippan- nell@comcast.net. u
