Anthony Dale: A tragedy in Virginia — and a crisis in DC

Immediately following the mass shooting in Virginia Beach on May 31, the eyes of the whole country fell on Southeast Virginia to mourn yet another tragedy. Twelve people were murdered on a beautiful sunny day in an all-too-common act of violence.

While we are justified in our grief, and the attention given to Virginia Beach is proportionate to the scale of the horror, I can’t help but ask: Where’s the outrage for shootings in DC? According to The Washington Post, four times as many people have died in DC as a result of gun violence since Jan. 1. Yet our lives go on with very little attention given to the bloodshed in our own backyard.

Over the past few weeks, gun violence has ripped through DC’s streets. No community has experienced this epidemic more than neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River. Over Memorial Day weekend, 21 people were struck by gunfire, including Maurice Scott, an honor roll student at Somerset Prep DC Public Charter School. His death motivated the community to come together for a rally led by Ward 8 Council member Trayon White. One of the resounding themes that came out of the event was the need for the residents to do more to take back the streets.

This senseless violence has not been confined to wards 7 and 8. Over the past three weeks, the Southwest community in Ward 6 has seen at least four violent gun-related incidents. During the June 1 weekend, I had the unfortunate responsibility of visiting the scene of a shooting that occurred on 3rd Street SW — just a block from the home where my family and I live. This shooting left one person in critical condition and a community in trauma.

The Metropolitan Police Department has done yeoman’s work to address gun violence. Stopping this escalating situation, however, requires the involvement of community leaders in partnership with MPD. The number of DC homicide victims who were fatally shot rose from 89 in 2017 to 125 in 2018, according to The Post’s data — though even the lower number offers no real respite from the trauma inflicted on DC families and communities.

Growing up in Baltimore in the early 1990s, I used to worry about being shot if I stayed out too late playing with my friends. One night, that nightmare turned into reality as my classmate and friend Tiffany became the unintended target of a drive-by shooting that ended her life. After this tragic incident, our neighborhood banded together to take back our streets. Leaders from all walks of life realized that we could no longer stand by and allow schoolchildren to live in fear or die by shooting.  

This is the same call to action that we need in Southwest DC and across the District. Shootings should not be a common occurrence, and residents should not become desensitized to gun violence. What actions can we take to end this epidemic of violence?

1. We must address the economic disenfranchisement that traps families in cycles of poverty. We live in one of the most prosperous cities in America: there is no reason we cannot come together and eradicate poverty. Steps that I am taking with local businesses to hire locally will put a dent in this cycle, but there is still more work to do.
2. We must restore foundational beliefs that set standards for how our children and neighbors ought to behave. Our society is losing its moral foundation each and every day, and until we say “enough is enough” this behavior will continue. We must stand arm-in-arm with leaders who are raising awareness of this gun violence, and we must speak up when our institutions are turning their backs on gun violence in our communities.
3. We must work with the DC Department of Health to address some of the root causes of this violence and partner with the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and the Office of the Attorney General’s Cure the Streets program to provide more pathways to employment. By doing so, we can reduce recidivism and the cycle of crime, poverty and violence.
4. Last but not least, we must speak up and say something. The idea that it is somehow wrong to remove someone from our community when they are up to no good is dangerous. Gang members and shooters do not deserve our loyalty, respect or protection. We should all feel empowered to call them out.

While I mourned the loss of life in Virginia Beach last week, my heart and activism remain in DC. We have a city full of dedicated public servants who are leveraging resources to restore peace on our streets — let’s stand with them when possible, and stand up on our own when necessary.

Anthony Dale, a resident of Southwest DC for more than a decade, is a member of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6D, which encompasses Southwest, Navy Yard and Buzzard Point.

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