Two of the region’s top prosecutors yesterday supported recent statements by Prince George’s County officials that their emerging concerns about violence are connected to problems in the District.
“A lot of the gangs we have in our county are the same as they have in the District,” said Glenn F. Ivey, state’s attorney for Prince George’s County.
Mr. Ivey made his statements to The Washington Times outside a symposium of about 100 residents, community leaders and politicians gathered at Prince George’s Community College for a symposium on finding alternatives to juvenile violence, gangs and drug abuse.
Keynote speaker Robert J. Spagnoletti, attorney general for the District, also said the county and the District are facing some of the same crime issues, including crimes committed by juveniles, and called on parents to instill “a measure of responsibility” in their children.
The statements made about five weeks after County Executive Jack B. Johnson and Police Chief Melvin C. High said population changes in the District were, in part, responsible for the crime increases.
The county unofficially had about 100 homicides as of yesterday, but officials could not confirm the exact number.
The most recent killing occurred Friday night in Capitol Heights, where police found Andrew Demetrius Greenfield, 30, shot dead in his apartment building in the 1900 block of Brooks Drive in Capitol Heights.
Recent projections show the county could have as many as 140 killings by January, nearly double the 71 recorded in 2000. Last year, there were 128 homicides in the county.
Montgomery County unofficially has about 13 killings so far this year, and Fairfax County unofficially has about five. The jurisdictions are the two most populated in the metropolitan area.
Mr. Johnson has called the numbers in Prince George’s County an “aberration,” but said “housing policies and other issues” in the District “affect what happens” in the county.
The Metropolitan Police Department reported 156 homicides in the District as of Friday. The number was 196 at this time in 2003. The District reported 248 murders last year.
Mr Ivey — along with Mr. Johnson, Chief High and others — thinks the county is becoming the new home of lower-income District residents forced out by developers and others converting once-affordable properties into expensive condominiums, town houses and other projects. Mr. Johnson said last month he spoke to D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams about the housing issue.
There is also the concern that the situation will become worse if District officials build a new baseball stadium in Southeast.
“Whether or not there is a stadium,” Mr. Ivey said, there are economic and housing issues in the District that are displacing people, and Prince George’s is a primary relocation spot.
He also said “everyone is welcome” in the country, but the displacement issues need to be addressed now.
The symposium yesterday featured appearances by DJ Flexx and Justine Love of WPGC FM.
Among the possible solutions discussed was a free hot line for juveniles to call to seek advice from a mentor.
“I’d like to see the number of murders go down in the community,” said Joe Brown, 32, who presented the hot-line idea. “I want the kids to see tomorrows.”
Mr. Brown grew up in Southeast, then moved into the county’s Suitland neighborhood.
Mr. Brown, who wore a camouflage vest, jeans and a hip-hop-style headband, said he came to the symposium to learn about resources and how they can be made more available.
“A lot of these individuals you most need to be in these meetings are not going to show up,” he said.
The symposium ended with a panel discussion featuring a variety of opinions on hip-hop music. DJ Flexx and Miss Love were joined by Pastor C.J. Blair, youth minister at the Tabernacle Church in Laurel and Pastor Tony Lee, senior minister to the Young Adults Ministry at Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church in Fort Washington.
Mr. Blair called hip-hop a “very dangerous, very negative vehicle placed on youth.”
He tells juveniles not to listen to the music because they lack the ability to distinguish between the fiction and the reality of the violence portrayed.
Mr. Lee hopes hip-hop culture will move beyond what is on the radio.
“I believe that a new day is coming in hip-hop,” he said.
DJ Flexx agreed that some hip-hop is positive but said it goes largely ignored because “the bottom line is that it comes down to money.”
He said listeners should call radio stations to request more positive songs.
“If you don’t like the violent rap, then you have to make it not acceptable.” he said.
Miss Love, host of late-night program “Love Talk and Slow Jams,” said: “I hold every adult in this room accountable for what’s happening.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.