Shooting at Five Guys in Columbia Heights

A sad post to be my 100th…

By the time I got there this afternoon, there wasn’t much to see except a crowd of gawkers on the DCUSA side of the 14th and Irving St, NWintersection and a bunch of TV trucks pulled up outside.  Prince of Petworth has a lively discussion going, mostly about the 1300 block of Columbia Rd. NW and the problems that have happened there.  The normal deal – words like “racist” thrown around when that’s the totally wrong term.

The problem is socioeconomics.  It’s tied to race, and skin color is the most visible feature of somebody, but the problem with violence has to do with opportunity and education and positive role models.  The more money someone has, the more those things exist and the less desperation exists.

But today’s shooting had to deal with the Summer Jobs Program.  They call the program “notoriously inept,” mostly due, it seems, to poor planning and budget overspending.  At an orientation for the jobs program, a revolver and brass knuckles were confiscated and a fight stemming from the orientation that started on the Metro continued to the street.

Awesome.  I can’t fathom the fight.  I can’t imagine what it would be about, if it was related to summer jobs.  I do find it ironic that a program designed to give opportunities, however, results in the behavior we try to eradicate.