DC People's Petition for Racial Justice

To: Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, of the D.C. City Council

We the undersigned residents of the District of Columbia, call on the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary of the D.C. City Council to promptly organize, schedule, and conduct public investigative hearings into racism and misconduct by the Metropolitan Police Department, the United States Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia, and judges of the Superior and Appeals courts for the District of Columbia; whereas:

1) Black residents are being targeted and subjected to arbitrary and illegal stops, searches, seizures, and false imprisonment by Metropolitan Police officers in addition to being physically threatened and assaulted.

2) The United States Attorney for the District of Columbia routinely targets and subjects Black residents to malicious prosecutions and the concealment of police misconduct.

3) Many judges of the D.C. Superior Court are engaged in the routine deprivation of due process rights and protections in aid to the malicious prosecutions brought by the U.S. Attorney, specifically be failing and refusing to perform "probable cause" determinations" and then subjecting residents to invasions of their privacy and restraints on their liberty in complete absence of all jurisdiction as a result of not first establishing lawful cause.

4) The D.C. Appeals Court has given surrepttitious sanction to the unlawful conduct and practices of D.C. Superior Court judges in failing and refusing to perform "probable cause" determinations, illegally seizing and jailing residents, and engaging in other illegal conduct to coerce and intimidate residents to enter guilty pleas to malicious prosecutions.

We therefore, demand public hearings to investigate each aspect of the problem set forth above so that appropriate corrective action can be taken such as:
a) Replacement of D.C. Police Chief Kathy Lanier and the termination of the "All hands on Deck" policy;

b) Requirements that police be prosecuted for crimes where it is evident that they have acted illegally in seizing a person or property, filing false police reports, or engaged in physical assault;

c) Revise current statutory authority and composition of the Commission on Judicial Disability and Tenure, beginning with the removal of William Lightfoot and the inclusion of community representatives;

d) Demand from the City Counsel to the House Judiciary Committee to investigate and make changes in the U.S. Attorneys office to protect residents against malicious prosecution;

e) Conduct hearings to impeach and remove specific judges of the D.C. Superior and Appeals courts for misconduct and gross incompetence.

Sincerely,