D.C. Drive-By Bolsters Call for More Resources

The police tape was still up Wednesday morning at the Northeast Washington public housing complex where two teenagers were killed and three wounded in a shootout Tuesday. Community leaders said the violence illustrates that more resources are needed in the neglected part of the city.

"Clay Terrace is in a part of the city that is an economic and social ghetto that has been cut off from the rest of the city for too long," said the Rev. Donald Isaac, executive director of the East of the River Clergy-Police-Community Partnership. "There is a disconnection with an element of young people who see violence as an acceptable means of resolving their conflicts."

Although many parts of the District are experiencing an economic revival evidenced by new homes and retail outlets, the boom has bypassed the 5300 block of Clay Terrace, in the eastern tip of the District's diamond, where boarded-up windows and scruffy dirt patches filled with cigarette butts are the plentiful and businesses scarce.

"I am not passing out any Halloween candy to the kids in this neighborhood," said one 73-year-old resident who didn't want to give her name because she lives near the crime scene. "The parents need to do a better job. You can't start raising your children when they get 14. I raised my six children and I have 10 grandchildren and five great-grands."

Her sentiments were echoed by community leaders who attended a forum Monday night at Southeast Baptist Tabernacle titled, "Youth Gang/Crew and School Violence: What Are the Causes and Solutions?"

"The problem at Clay Terrace is the result of a beef between two rival groups and there has been no commitment by city officials to come up with a solution," said Ron Moton, co-founder of Peaceoholics, which sponsored the event that attracted nearly 200 people.

"Right now there are 54 beefs going on in the city between rival gangs, but we can only do so much," said Moton, illustrating his point with charts and graphs. "From August until now there have been 80 shootings in this city, but yet this is not an emergency."

Said Brenda Jones, a longtime community leader in the area, "In Clay Terrace it is a shame that young people have to grow up in that environment and don't understand that life can be better. They don't have a clue.

"I conducted a series of parenting workshops on 50th Street, where I found that many people were poor and came from dysfunctional families," Jones said. "I also observed that a whole lot of people were out of school and no one seemed to care. There was no one to say, 'Go to school.' It is a sad situation, but the leaders in this town have to care more."

Sharece Crawford, 21, president of the Ballou High School Class of 2005 and a graduate of Shaw University, said the root of the violence is that "a lot young people out here are running on fear and as result they connect with the wrong people who encourage them to do more negative things."

"I was operating on fear and allowed anything to push my button until I got myself together," said Crawford, adding that people have to stop waiting for someone else to solve the problem. "Stop thinking about you and your family and reach out to someone else. Stop pointing the finger at everybody else and start pointing it at the mirror."