DC Councilmember Pinto hears from Ward 8 residents on loitering concerns during crime walk
WASHINGTON (7News) — D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto took her safety walk series to Ward 8 Wednesday and got an earful from residents about how to tweak her Secure DC crime bill.
“All we’ve seen is more dead bodies, more mothers who have lost their children, more children who have lost their parents,” said ANC Commissioner Jamila White.
Pinto’s crime walk tour went through White’s district along Good Hope Road, Southeast. Her crime walk series began Friday, Oct. 13, and Wards 4 and 8 were the last on her list.
D.C.’s Ward 8, which had 84 homicides so far in 2023, has twice as many murders as any other ward in the city.
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During her walk Wednesday, Pinto heard several residents call for a return of loitering laws to the city.
Patrick O’Keefe, who lives along 16th Street, Southeast, said people come from across the metropolitan area to stand on the blocks near his home.
It’s gotten to the point that some bring out lawn chairs and sit in the public spaces along the street, known for illicit activities.
Disputes, fights, and drive-by shootings are not infrequent.
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“Two shootings on 16th Street last week,” O’Keefe said.
“The vast majority of these shootings are targeting the people that are loitering,” he added.
On August 5, five people were shot and three of them died. There have been deadly shootings in that corridor before and since that incident.
During Wednesday’s walk, some in the crowd of about 40 people complained that Pinto was not answering questions on whether she supported a no loitering law.
“I think something needs to change, to give MPD more tools to be able to intervene,” Pinto said in response.
Pinto’s last stop was D.C.’s Ward 4. The ward has a significant crime problem, but it’s not nearly as violent as Ward 8.
Pinto said in the coming weeks and months she will hold hearings on various aspects of the crime bill and will include ideas she learned in her walks through all eight wards.