Outfoxed In the District

She said she wasn't able to transfer him right now, that he was just an alcoholic.

Tomorrow is the second anniversary of an event that some folks in the District would just as soon let pass without notice. It's not gonna happen.

On the evening of Jan. 6, 2006, a man was brutally attacked and robbed in a Northwest neighborhood. He died two days later from a massive head injury. Between his savage beating and the moment of his death, that critically injured man was subjected to government incompetence and medical malpractice of the first order. District police and fire and emergency medical services workers as well as Howard University Hospital staff members cavalierly dismissed him as a drunken "John Doe."

His name was David E. Rosenbaum. He was a reporter for the New York Times. But his job was not the reason he became the subject of several columns I wrote over the past two years.

The columns attacked the veil of secrecy that was initially draped over John Doe's death, the lies woven to protect the negligent and the indifferent, the rotten work ethic that runs rampant in our city, and inept government oversight by District leaders.

Today, the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department is led by a new chief, Dennis Rubin. Pushed by Rosenbaum's survivors, the city claims to have made changes in the department. Firefighters and EMS workers are to be cross-trained. Teamwork and professionalism are the department's new watchwords.

The deposition cited above, which was not received from David Rosenbaum's adult children or their lawyer, was taken in connection with a lawsuit the Rosenbaum family filed against Howard University Hospital. The hospital recently settled with Rosenbaum's adult children.

That takes the slain journalist out of the news.

But it doesn't eliminate the conditions that threaten the quality of life of all who live in this city: criminals roaming the streets in search of human prey; an apathetic and complacent government workforce; nonproducers ensconced in high places; and elected leaders who fall for snow jobs.

Would that Fire and Emergency Medical Services was the only D.C. agency in need of a makeover. The list is long, with some departments, such as Youth and Rehabilitation Services, operating as fiefdoms.

At the heart of the problem is a government that has outgrown -- and outfoxed -- the leaders elected to oversee it, namely the 13-member D.C. Council.