Beltway Area Indymedia

Mayor Fenty and police chief Lanier have unveiled their summer "crime-fighting" strategy: Zero tolerance policing, apparently based on "Guiliani time" in New York City! On the weekend of June 8-10, a police blitz produced well over 500 arrests, including 130 for prostitution and anothyer huge number for panhandling.

Although the double-overtime police shifts that were an integral part of this blitz is unsustainable, telling cops to make as many arrests as possible on any possible charges is another story.

This tactic was pioneered by NY's plunger-wielding former mayor Rudolph Guiliani, now running for President. Its purposed in NY was to clear Manhattan of poor people and people of color so so yuppies could move in in their place.

Based on the huge number of arrests for so-called "quality of life" offenses like prostitution and panhandling, it looks like that form of police terror has now come to DC. Last year's shameful curefew and cameras package was bad enough, but at least people knew what activities were dangerous.

Now esentially ALL presence of the "wrong people" on the streets seems to be a target, and even more of those cameras are in the works. The message from Chief Lanier and Mayor Fenty seems to be this: if you are poor or not white, get out of the way-the Yuppies are coming!