VOL. 55, NO. 8 • DECEMBER 5 - 11, 2019
As Snow Flurries Approach It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas
Upscale Housing Comes to St. Elizabeths East Campus
Jamaal Byrd's Death Raises Questions about Jail Conditions, Marijuana Policy
By James Wright WI Staff Writer @jamesdcwrighter
By Sam P.K. Collins WI Contributing Writer @SamPKCollins Like others who lost loved ones this year, the late Jamaal Byrd's family spent Thanksgiving without their son, brother, and father. Two months after his death while under police custody, their attempts to gather information from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and others haven’t proved successful. In their quest to hold public officials accountable, Byrd’s family enlisted the help of the D.C. chapter of Black Lives Matter (BLM DC) and other local organizers. All parties recently converged on the front steps of MPD headquarters as a show of solidarity with the decadent, who spent the last hours of his life detained for alleged marijuana possession. “My son loved people, especially family. He had a quiet spirit but often had profound thoughts on many subjects,” Roxane Johnson, the late Byrd‘s mother, said in a press statement released hours before November 26 gathering at MPD headquarters, located at Judiciary Square in Northwest, “He enjoyed laughing and joking around. He was a good cook (especially pancakes); and [had] an eye for photography,” the press statement continued. “He said ‘being a father is
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Unveiling Rosa Parks Statue Page 17
5 Mayor Muriel Bowser cut the ribbon for the Residences at St. Elizabeth's East in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Ward 8 on November 23. (Anthony Tilghman/The Washington Informer)
The St. Elizabeths East campus recently added a residential component to its ongoing development. On Nov. 23, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), along with the staff of the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, welcomed new occupants into The Residences at St. Elizabeths East, an apartment community at the historic campus located in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Ward 8. Bowser said the new facility, located south of the Entertainment and Sports Arena, will be a boon to the St. Elizabeths East campus and the ward.
ST ELIZABETHS Page 21
D.C. Council Unanimously Recommends Evans’ Expulsion By Sam P.K. Collins WI Contributing Writer @SamPKCollins For months, D.C. Councilmember Jack Evans avoided questions -from constituents and colleagues alike -- about what had been documented as his abuse of political power for financial gain. He recently went as far as declining to appear before the adhoc committee determining his fate as an elected official. On Tuesday afternoon, that committee, comprised of Evans’ 12 council colleagues, recommended that he no longer serve the residents of Ward 2. In less than two hours, and without
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5 Council members Trayon White - Ward 8, Elissa Silverman - At-Large, and David Gross - At-Large deliberate on action that Council member Jack Evans had taken within the last five years. (Robert R. Roberts/The Washington Informer)
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