WINNER OF THREE SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS D.C. AWARDS
WI Health Supplement Center Section Vol. 56, No. 43 • August 12 - 18, 2021
Viral Police Abuse Video Shakes Ward 8 Community
Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
A video making the rounds on social media not only has led to three District police officers facing criminal prosecution but incensed residents in Southeast about what they describe as constant police harassment inflicted on their community. On Sunday, Aug. 8, officers, responding to reports of drug activity, approached a young man near the corner of 16th and U Streets in Southeast who they would later find possessed a firearm. As the video shows, two officers restrained him while 3 A screen shot captured from a video that went viral shows two D.C. police officers restraining a man in Southeast after reports of alleged drug activity in the area. One of the officers assaulted the man leading to the residents decrying police harassment. (Twitter grab)
a third officer, in front of a crowd, repeatedly struck the man in the head with a closed fist. As a millennial who witnessed the incident told The Informer, officers have recently harassed and assaulted their friends and others who live and congregate along 16th Street between Good Hope Road and V Street in Southeast. “This is not this officer’s first time putting his hand on someone,” said the young man who requested anonymity. “The officers went hard with all those cameras on them. Just imagine if he [the officer] kept people by themselves. We’re ten deep and he’s just swinging. It’s just another day. He’s acting like a mob boss.” The young man who the officer struck in the video, as well as another person arrested at the scene, have since been released with no charges. As for the three officers, whose names have not yet been released, they have either been
ABUSE Page 44
Bowser Announces Vaccine Mandate for Public School Teachers and Other D.C. Employees Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
FIRST OF A THREE-PART SERIES
An Eviction Tsunami is Approaching D.C. and Few Seem Prepared Barrington M. Salmon Special to The Informer African-American renters in D.C. spend more than 30 percent of their monthly income on rent. They constitute the highest among the District's housing insecure, most likely to face eviction following the end of the federal rent moratorium, re-
cently extended by the CDC at the request of President Biden until Oct. 3. A growing fear among housing advocates and others is rooted in the belief that if left unchecked, D.C. residents will join millions of displaced and homeless individuals and families across the country washed away in an
EVICTION Page 38
All current and newly hired D.C. government employees, including public school teachers, will be required to be fully vaccinated by September 19. Those who apply for religious or medical exemption will have to produce weekly negative COVID-19 test results. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), flanked by government officials and labor leaders, revealed the policy update at the John A. Wilson Building on Tuesday, Aug. 10 amid a rise in COVID-19 cases across the region and an ongoing campaign to vaccinate all District residents against the virus. Recent DC Health data shows an in-
5 A photo taken earlier this year when D.C. Public School teachers
MANDATE Page 9 were some of the first to receive COVID-19 vaccines. (WI File Photo)
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