Entire DC Neighborhoods To Be Cordoned Off

(From the fourth amendment standpoint, I have never been a fan of the legality of sobriety checkpoints without the requirement for probable cause. This takes that to another, clearly not legal, level.)

From Alan:

A local independent newspaper in DC, The Examiner, broke this story, "Lanier plans to seal off rough ’hoods in latest effort to stop wave of violence," about police plans to quarantine entire neighborhoods due to weekend shootings. Watch carefully the next few days all online news related to DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier and this proposal to cordon off entire neighborhoods in Northeast DC for a 10-day period. They will be asking everyone who enters or leaves these neighborhoods to provide ID and a reason for why they are in the area...this is straight out of apartheid South Africa. Please monitor this...

I don't see how this is legal. The crime problems are not going to be interdicted by cordoning off neighborhoods, unless "outsiders" are committing the killings.

Of course, the real problem is that murder is mostly an "inside" job. So sadly, while "doing something" this action isn't likely to have much effect.
----------------------------------
Cross-Cultural Research, Vol. 29, No. 4, 361-382 (1995)
Economic Development, Social Control, and Murder Rates: A Cross-National Approach
De Li
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Prior research on the relationship between economic development and murder rates on the cross-national level has produced inconsistent results. This article argues that the relationship between economic development and murder rates can be better understood by adopting the notion of active social control, operationalized as political democracy and mass communication. It is proposed that high levels of active social control, resulting from economic development, will counterbalance the potential for violent behavior and thus reduce murder rates. The findings from an analysis of cross-sectional data from 39 nations support the hypothesis. It is argued that the notion of active social control can be integrated into Durkheim's theory of social solidarity and deviance to build a unified theory of murder and violent behavior.

Also see "Law of the streets is a death sentence" from the Chicago Tribune. From the article:

"If you look at a map of Chicago, you can find the seven communities in Chicago that make up 70 percent of the homicides," said Carl Bell, president of the Community Mental Health Council and professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "And those six or seven don't have any social fabric."And walking away from a conflict is a sign of weakness, said Rev. Robin Hood, lead organizer for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Those living within the tumultuous atmosphere of gangbangers and drug dealers don't dare earn such a reputation.

"There's a certain pride or emotion that if you back away from a situation, you're weak," Hood said. "You've got to take care of your business. The law of the streets is kill or be killed." Some who live in these environments say a sense of hopelessness can turn into hostility.

(Carl Bell is an expert on inner city homicide and black-on-black homicide. I dealt with him maybe 18 years ago when I worked on a project relating to the report Marketing Booze to Blacks.)

And see Streetwise and Code of the Street by Elijah Anderson. And "Straight Outta Boston" from Mother Jones.

Don't we have any criminoligists working for the DC Government?