A Street Corner Analysis of D.C. Crime

A memorial to 13-year-old Alonzo Robinson adorns a utility pole in the Trinidad neighborhood. (By Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)

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Before residents will start cooperating with police, they say, the department must overcome a reputation, made in the 1980s, as having too many cops who are poorly trained, trigger-happy and corrupt.

I asked Johnson what he would do if he were chief of police.

"If I was chief of police . . . wait, I can't be no police," he said. "But if I was in charge, I would tell the police to back off, all that posting up on the corner just aggravates the young 'uns, and they come back with a vengeance."

So what's the answer?

"I know a lot of people who wouldn't kill somebody if they knew they were going to get the death penalty," Johnson said.

Moreover, he added, if killers were put to death, regardless of age, residents would be less reluctant to testify against them.

Smith wasn't too keen on the idea.

"Suppose you get bagged for killing somebody you didn't kill?" he said. "By the time they figure out they got the wrong man, it's too late to bring you back."

Derrick Wood, 19, agreed. But he still sided with Johnson about the nature of the problem.

"Everybody knows that young 'uns don't do time," Wood said, referring to the relatively lenient sentences meted out to juvenile offenders. "That just makes them bolder."

He raised his hand as if holding a pistol. "They'll walk right up to you, not even wearing a mask, and slump you on the spot."

Killing time.

E-mail:milloyc@washpost.com

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