'Scare Tactics' From Fenty's Team?

Mayors in the District have never taken criticism particularly well.

Anthony A. Williams (D) used pained body language to signal his displeasure when asked tough questions from reporters or residents. Marion Barry (D) famously charged that a certain unfavorable element had "set me up" after being caught on an undercover camera doing illegal things years ago.

Some think the Fenty administration is taking its umbrage to a new level.

On June 13, uber-activist Dorothy Brizill was handcuffed and led off to jail after engaging in a row with an aide to Victor A. Reinoso, deputy mayor for education, at the John A. Wilson Building. Another community activist alleges that he was similarly targeted by the Fenty team the same day.

Robert Brannum, a substitute teacher who has demonstrated against Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's takeover of public schools, says he thinks the administration was angered by loud comments he had made June 12 at the mayor's news conference to announce the appointment of Michelle A. Rhee as school chancellor. Brannum attended the announcement, on the steps of the Wilson Building, and badgered the mayor and his aides several times.

Brannum said he learned he was under investigation by the public school system for an alleged altercation with Reinoso. He said Reinoso ultimately exonerated him when questioned by school system investigators.

But Brannum said he thinks Fenty (D) was sending a message.

"Maybe it is, 'I've got control. Watch what you're doing,' " Brannum said.

"I'm surprised that it happened," added Brannum, an Advisory Neighborhood Commission member who ran unsuccessfully for the Board of Education last year. "I don't know who started the rumors and elevated it to the point where there was an official investigation."

Several community activists said the incidents concerning Brizill and Brannum appear to be a form of intimidation. Brizill said she was trying to get a phone number for a panel member when she was accused of assaulting an aide to Reinoso. The aide said Brizill grabbed the lanyard she was wearing around her neck.

"Dorothy Brizill doesn't have to attack anybody with her hands," said Cherita Whiting, a school activist. "She can do a much better job at it with her pen and paper. Taking her out in handcuffs . . . it was unnecessary."

Whiting said it appears the Fenty administration is using "scare tactics."