legalmoose (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
legalmoose) wrote2007-06-14 01:24 pm
legalmoose) wrote2007-06-14 01:24 pm
Action Alert: Save the MPD GLLU
This is an action alert to help save the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit (GLLU) of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Friends,
GLAA learned late yesterday that Police Chief Cathy Lanier has decided to
decentralize the Metropolitan Police Department's award-winning Gay and
Lesbian Liaison Unit effective this coming Sunday, June 17, and to reassign
its officers to patrol districts around the city. The unit's members are
exceedingly unhappy about this, as are we.
Please join us in urging Chief Lanier and Mayor Fenty to rescind this
decision and to keep this model police unit intact. Below are ten talking
points you may find helpful. You may want to copy D.C. Council members and
Chris Dyer of the Mayor's office of GLBT Affairs, as we have done in this
message. I am also blind-copying GLAA's press list with this message.
Let's work together to help GLLU as they have so often helped us. This is no
time to be taking a step backwards in keeping with the unofficial motto of
governments everywhere, "If it ain't broke, break it."
Thanks.
Rick Rosendall
Vice President for Political Affairs
Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance
202-328-6278 (home)
202-667-5139 (GLAA voicemail)
www.glaa.org
10 Reasons Not to Decentralize MPD's Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit
Talking Points from the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance
Thursday, June 14, 2007
1. Chief Lanier's plan to decentralize GLLU effective Sunday, June 17,
and to reassign its officers to individual patrol districts, will
effectively destroy the Unit. This is completely unacceptable to GLAA and to
numerous community members who have spoken with us. If GLLU officers are to
report to district commanders and are assigned to PSA patrols, that will
effectively erase the Unit as an identifiable and cohesive force. Chief
Lanier had agreed with GLAA in March that the Unit should continue to be
centrally managed.
2. The Unit has been quite active; it handled over 500 assignments last
year.
3. The Unit has responded as needed all over the city, including east
of the river. Any notion to the contrary on the part of Chief Lanier is
simply ill-informed.
4. No Unit officer has applied for overtime, despite being on call and
responding to incidents as required at all hours.
5. The community need is indeed city-wide, but is not evenly
distributed; locking Unit officers into particular patrol districts is an
inefficient use of resources.
6. GLLU was recently awarded the Richard L. Schlegel Legion of Honor
Award by American University's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally
Resource Center. GLLU was recognized in the 'Visionary Leader' category for
working against violence and making outstanding contributions to GLBT
communities. Why is Chief Lanier so determined to decentralize an
award-winning unit which has brought credit and positive press to the
Department? She is fixing something that isn't broken.
7. GLLU last year was awarded the prestigious Innovations in American
Government Award from Harvard University's Ash Institute for Democratic
Governance and Innovation for reaching out to an under-served community and
creating a model for community policing. This involves a $100,000 focused
grant; the administrator of the grant has indicated that the grant monies
will be lost if the unit is effectively abolished by being decentralized.
There is no good reason why this should be allowed to happen. Such
heedlessness from our chief of police is deeply troubling.
8. The Chief's stated plan to have marked cruisers identified as
associated with GLLU would be counterproductive in several communities,
particularly east-of-the-river communities and immigrant communities
throughout the city, in which GLBT citizens are often closeted as well as
uncomfortable being visited by police in their homes. The Chief would have
known this had she consulted with members of the Unit or with community
leaders who have been hearing this from members of our community for years.
As an example of this problem, many customers of Whitman-Walker Clinic over
the years who live in Southeast have preferred to go across town to the
Clinic's 14th Street NW location to avoid being seen going into or coming
out of the Clinic's Max Robinson Center in Anacostia.
9. The GLBT community members with whom the Chief met some months ago,
as facilitated by Sgt. Brett Parson, no doubt had legitimate concerns, but
that should not be used as an excuse either to shut out experienced
community leaders from any input into decisions or to claim a community
mandate for decisions that are the Chief's own, based on her own
convictions.
10. The Unit's members strongly desire to remain centrally organized as
they currently are. These are highly motivated and dedicated public safety
officers in a deservedly award-winning unit, with first-rate leadership from
Lt. Alberto Jova and Sgt. Tania Bell. The Unit and its leadership should
remain intact.
The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, DC, is a local, all-volunteer, non-partisan, non-profit political organization, founded in 1971 to advance the equal rights of gay men and lesbians in Washington, DC. We are the nation's oldest continuously active gay and lesbian civil rights organization.
Yahoo! Groups Links
Friends,
GLAA learned late yesterday that Police Chief Cathy Lanier has decided to
decentralize the Metropolitan Police Department's award-winning Gay and
Lesbian Liaison Unit effective this coming Sunday, June 17, and to reassign
its officers to patrol districts around the city. The unit's members are
exceedingly unhappy about this, as are we.
Please join us in urging Chief Lanier and Mayor Fenty to rescind this
decision and to keep this model police unit intact. Below are ten talking
points you may find helpful. You may want to copy D.C. Council members and
Chris Dyer of the Mayor's office of GLBT Affairs, as we have done in this
message. I am also blind-copying GLAA's press list with this message.
Let's work together to help GLLU as they have so often helped us. This is no
time to be taking a step backwards in keeping with the unofficial motto of
governments everywhere, "If it ain't broke, break it."
Thanks.
Rick Rosendall
Vice President for Political Affairs
Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance
202-328-6278 (home)
202-667-5139 (GLAA voicemail)
www.glaa.org
10 Reasons Not to Decentralize MPD's Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit
Talking Points from the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance
Thursday, June 14, 2007
1. Chief Lanier's plan to decentralize GLLU effective Sunday, June 17,
and to reassign its officers to individual patrol districts, will
effectively destroy the Unit. This is completely unacceptable to GLAA and to
numerous community members who have spoken with us. If GLLU officers are to
report to district commanders and are assigned to PSA patrols, that will
effectively erase the Unit as an identifiable and cohesive force. Chief
Lanier had agreed with GLAA in March that the Unit should continue to be
centrally managed.
2. The Unit has been quite active; it handled over 500 assignments last
year.
3. The Unit has responded as needed all over the city, including east
of the river. Any notion to the contrary on the part of Chief Lanier is
simply ill-informed.
4. No Unit officer has applied for overtime, despite being on call and
responding to incidents as required at all hours.
5. The community need is indeed city-wide, but is not evenly
distributed; locking Unit officers into particular patrol districts is an
inefficient use of resources.
6. GLLU was recently awarded the Richard L. Schlegel Legion of Honor
Award by American University's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally
Resource Center. GLLU was recognized in the 'Visionary Leader' category for
working against violence and making outstanding contributions to GLBT
communities. Why is Chief Lanier so determined to decentralize an
award-winning unit which has brought credit and positive press to the
Department? She is fixing something that isn't broken.
7. GLLU last year was awarded the prestigious Innovations in American
Government Award from Harvard University's Ash Institute for Democratic
Governance and Innovation for reaching out to an under-served community and
creating a model for community policing. This involves a $100,000 focused
grant; the administrator of the grant has indicated that the grant monies
will be lost if the unit is effectively abolished by being decentralized.
There is no good reason why this should be allowed to happen. Such
heedlessness from our chief of police is deeply troubling.
8. The Chief's stated plan to have marked cruisers identified as
associated with GLLU would be counterproductive in several communities,
particularly east-of-the-river communities and immigrant communities
throughout the city, in which GLBT citizens are often closeted as well as
uncomfortable being visited by police in their homes. The Chief would have
known this had she consulted with members of the Unit or with community
leaders who have been hearing this from members of our community for years.
As an example of this problem, many customers of Whitman-Walker Clinic over
the years who live in Southeast have preferred to go across town to the
Clinic's 14th Street NW location to avoid being seen going into or coming
out of the Clinic's Max Robinson Center in Anacostia.
9. The GLBT community members with whom the Chief met some months ago,
as facilitated by Sgt. Brett Parson, no doubt had legitimate concerns, but
that should not be used as an excuse either to shut out experienced
community leaders from any input into decisions or to claim a community
mandate for decisions that are the Chief's own, based on her own
convictions.
10. The Unit's members strongly desire to remain centrally organized as
they currently are. These are highly motivated and dedicated public safety
officers in a deservedly award-winning unit, with first-rate leadership from
Lt. Alberto Jova and Sgt. Tania Bell. The Unit and its leadership should
remain intact.
The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, DC, is a local, all-volunteer, non-partisan, non-profit political organization, founded in 1971 to advance the equal rights of gay men and lesbians in Washington, DC. We are the nation's oldest continuously active gay and lesbian civil rights organization.
Yahoo! Groups Links