jonetta rose barras: DC residents worry about the madman in their backyard
The worry is palpable. At the post office, at the supermarket where I shop, inside my own apartment building — really wherever I went over the weekend — DC residents wanted to talk about President Donald J. Trump’s order to use a drone to kill Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani and others at an airfield in Iraq.
In contrast, no one discussed Mayor Muriel Bowser’s decision to expand the city’s inclusionary zoning program, announced last week. IZ, as it is sometimes called, allows zoning officials to approve greater density for new residential buildings, if developers agree to set aside at least 8% of their units as low-cost housing. As part of the expansion, Bowser has asked the DC Zoning Commission to increase the requirement to between 10% and 20%, suggesting it will help reach her goal of 36,000 new housing units by 2025. There has been no mention, however, of the obvious benefit to developers.
No one wanted to chat, either, about the anticipated expulsion of Ward 2 DC Council member Jack Evans, who independent investigators found committed at least 11 violations of the legislature’s Code of Conduct and rules. That may have been because most people were expecting him to resign, as he did on Tuesday. His resignation is effective Jan. 17. No one should think that is the end, however. There is every indication that Evans will circle back, possibly running for the Ward 2 seat in the June Democratic primary. With six other candidates vying for the seat, if he pulls out his base, he could win the thing.
Help us!
Those kinds of local stories were subsumed by the national and international. The clear focus for many District residents was the madman in their backyard.
People voiced concern about whether the country is on the precipice of a dangerous and major war. Unsurprisingly, they wondered about whether the nation’s capital is really safe and secure from the possible retaliation that has been pledged by Iranian leaders. More than a few folks referenced the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by members of al-Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden. Later we would all become familiar with a cornucopia of terrorist organizations — the Taliban, the Islamic State — seemingly bred, in part, by the United States and its flawed military strategy.
“That has to be on people’s minds,” Dorothy Brizill, founder of DC Watch, a government watchdog group, told me during an interview. “I have no confidence as regards a trigger-happy president who has surrounded himself with people who don’t have any experience for the positions they hold.”
Trump exemplified his trigger-happy nature when, after killing Suleimani, he promised to bomb Iran’s cultural institutions if it struck back. Such action would be a violation of international law governing the conduct of war, said Kelly Magsamen, a former official at the National Security Council and the Pentagon who is now at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. In comments to The Washington Post, she called the fact that Trump didn’t seem to know that “profoundly frightening to me.”
Several major cities, including New York, have been placed on heightened alert. Bowser wrote in two Jan. 3 tweets that there were “no immediate threats to the District of Columbia.”
“We remain vigilant and [the Metropolitan Police Department and DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency] will remain in close contact with regional and federal partners to monitor evolving events — both at home and abroad,” the mayor said, adding the familiar mantra for residents: “If they see something, say something.”
District residents said a lot in 2019 about the level of violence in their community. The new year 2020 began as the last one ended with dead bodies strewn across sidewalks, streets and parking lots throughout the city. If the local public safety officials can’t deal with basic garden-variety thugs and killers, are they really prepared for ruthless terrorists, hoping for martyrdom?
“I am confident District and federal officials are being attentive,” Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said Monday during his monthly press briefing, where he was asked whether he’d received any briefings from the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency. He seemed to suggest that if local officials focus too much attention on the situation it might do “more harm.”
Iran may seem light years away from the nation’s capital. However, the world has gotten smaller over the nearly two decades since bin Laden’s disciples used airplanes to blow up parts of the Pentagon and the Twin Towers.
I was a keynote speaker at a conference in Boise, Idaho, that day — the day all the planes in the country were grounded. All of us scrambled to get home, madly searching for any available rental cars or buses. It felt as if I were in one of those sci-fi movies I’d seen on television where the country was under attack by unknown forces and everyone was trying to find someone else so they could persuade themselves it was possible to get back to normal. It took me nearly a week before I arrived home in DC.
The worst wasn’t over, however. Anthrax would come, ultimately killing five people and injuring 19 others. Back then, DC Mayor Anthony A. Williams and his team provided regular briefings for the public. Elected officials, such as DC Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, were forced to stop receiving written correspondence in their offices.
Mendelson is right: There have been significant improvements since then. Bin Laden is dead, killed by U.S. Navy SEAL Team 6. But hate is not tamed by time, distance or apparently the death of any one leader. Suleimani’s successor has already been selected.
There remain, however, gaping holes in the country’s and city’s security network. We need only consider the June 2016 mass shooting in Orlando, Florida; Omar Mateen, who pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State terror group, killed 49 people and injured another 53 inside the Pulse Nightclub. In DC, former Navy reservist and military contractor Aaron Alexis opened fire on Sept. 16, 2013, at the Navy Yard, killing 12 people and injuring eight others; he was taken down by police. In November 2009 at Fort Hood, 13 people were murdered and another 30 injured by Islamic State sycophant Army Maj Nidal Hassan.
More recently, there have been concerns about cyberattacks. Several corporations have been hacked with private information about their clients or their finances being held for ransom; some government agencies have suffered similar attacks. While Iran may have bombed a U.S. military base in Iraq as one strike back, some experts have said Iran may perpetrate a cyber assault. Despite recent history and future possibilities, the DC Homeland Security Commission, as reported by NBC4, has yet to release its report on the city’s vulnerability, although the document has been ready for over a year.
Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kevin Donahue did not respond to my request for comment about the city’s perceived vulnerability.
Mendelson seemed unfazed when asked about the issue during his press briefing. He said that such things are not under his jurisdiction but rather that of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety.
Interestingly, Charles Allen, who chairs that committee, led the council in approving the reappointment of Philip McNamara and Brad Belzak to the security commission. While Tuesday’s vote was unanimous, not one legislator even asked about the overdue report from the commission. When elected officials turn a blind eye to issues related to safety and security of the government and the city, there is ample reason for residents to worry.
Bowser is scheduled to hold a press conference today at noon to address the city’s ongoing security preparedness. Will that be enough to assuage concerns? Probably not.
There is a madman in residence at the White House. No one really knows what he might do next, and how innocent Americans, including District residents, might have to pay the cost for his recklessness.
jonetta rose barras is an author, a freelance journalist and host of The Barras Report television show. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.
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