To Mayor Euille and Members of the Alexandria City Council:
Before I get to the formal request at the bottom of this letter, I want you to read my personal story. Each and every one of you knows exactly who I am. Of that, I am one hundred percent certain. I either actively campaigned for you, supported you, or vehemently opposed you. I am never neutral.
This past summer, in either very late August or maybe early September, I, a middle-aged, white, slightly overweight woman in a Gap t-shirt, capri pants and flip-flops, was walking door to door in a public housing project in Alexandria distributing literature to invite residents to a meeting of legislators to be held at NOVA Community College to discuss local issues (not soliciting for votes, not “canvassing” per se). I was doing so on behalf of my elected Member of the Virginia House of Delegates, David Englin. I was stopped, by a black police officer, who stood in front of me as I attempted to ascend the steps of a residence, forcibly preventing me from so doing. He demanded an explanation for my presence on the premises. I explained what I was doing there and why. He asked my name, demanded to see my driver’s license, which was in my car, then read the literature I was carrying. He decided to “let me go,” but warned me that I must have ID while in “the projects” and “not do anything else when I was done passing out literature and then leave.”
What exactly did that police officer, whom our tax dollars pay for, think I was going to do? Mug somebody? At my age and given the shape I’m in, I could have been outrun and captured by a three year old on a tricycle. Did he think I was there to buy drugs? If I did drugs, I’d be a in a good mood and not so outraged about the shenanigans going on around this city.
I’d like to know why it is the policy of the Alexandria police to stop strangers (read: white people) in public housing projects in Alexandria. I’m pretty white, and I REALLY want to know. If a black friend comes to my house in my overwhelmingly white neighborhood, will he or she get stopped by the police?
The City Council is just plain stupid if it does not support HB264. The current policy probably violates the First Amendment rights of the residents themselves and any lawyer with an ounce of knowledge of Constitutional Law could challenge it in Federal Court. Shame on you who don’t have a thorough understanding of the First Amendment and what “the right of the people to peaceably assemble” means. We could also talk about the Fourth Amendment. Do poor people give up their Constitutional rights when they move into public housing? Is there no “…right of the people to be secure in their…houses..”? For God’s sake, look up the First and Fourth Amendments if you aren’t familiar with them. Have you thought about how much it would cost the City – in other words, ME, and my fellow taxpayers, to defend against a suit like that? You would be tied up in litigation for years. It would make for an interesting Constitutional Law class discussion, that’s for sure. I might even re-enroll in law school for it, this time just for kicks.
Oh, and did I forget to mention the time our new Police Chief, Earl Cook, who lives on my street, walked into my house, uninvited and without a warrant, when my husband and I were not present and searched every minor child in my home? That’s another long story. How about a nice big fat FOIA request for the police report from that night? Why is all about MY house when the party was at EARL COOK’S HOUSE?? Or should I mention the T.C. Williams teacher who connived with an Alexandria police officer to have the teacher’s own kid placed, sobbing, in the back of a cruiser while the officer pretended to have the kid under arrest, just to “teach the kid a lesson.” Oh, I remember that one well. I spoke to Police Captain Eddie Reyes about that. No disciplinary action was taken against the “arresting” officer, who, so far as I know, is still assigned to T.C. Williams.
All that having been said, please reconsider your boneheaded opposition to the revised version of Delegate David Englin’s HB264. While homeowners and neighboring ARHA properties and the law enforcement community had serious concerns about the original version of the bill, the revised version of the bill addresses all of those concerns, and it deserves your unqualified support.
Delegate Englin should be commended for working so diligently to ensure HB 264 solves those problems. If you decline to support HB 264 so the entire Commonwealth can benefit from these best practices, then I urge you to impose those requirements on ARHA by City ordinance.
Alexandria ought to be a leader when it comes to balancing public safety with protecting the rights of the poor and disenfranchised. I find it odd that many on City Council support restoration of voting rights for felons in Virginia, but won’t support letting some of those same felons visit their own family and friends in public housing.
Fondly and with all due respect because you KNOW I just love you guys-
Gail Gordon Donegan